It's The Middle Of October?!

   Hello everyone! I'm back! I had a wonderful week away, which I'll talk about very soon, but now I'm back I've found myself thrown into chaos! I made the mistake of not factoring those 9 days away into my shop and blog Christmas prep, and I've come home I have discovered it's the middle of October!

   My Christmas Sock Exchange - a secret santa exchange for readers and bloggers, but with a miniature stocking rather than large gift - has just 10 more days for sign ups, and I've had a wonderful response again, but this time from many international readers! Which is excellent! I'm so excited about it, I can't wait to assign everyone and start working on what I'm sending out myself! Sign ups close on the 23rd of October, then there's a 1 week period for opting out if you've changed your mind - you can still sign up between the 24th and 31st, but you won't be able to opt out if you do. It is, of course, open to anyone in the world.

What I received last year from the lovely Amanda

   My Etsy shop has taken priority this past week because I had a backlog of orders to get put together and shipped out, which I managed yesterday, and as a surprising number of early birds start their Christmas shopping in mid October, I had a lot to get laid out and a lot to stock up on.
   I've also got a few new pieces to go up, all of which needed listings written which can take a lot of time, though at least the work is broken up by a little research because I like to add a few relevant animal facts to my animal necklace listings. I only just completed that this very morning for the finished pieces, but I have a few more still in progress. I don't know how they will turn out as they're not my usual thing, but it is something I've wanted to try for a while, so with any luck I'll be able to add a few more pieces to the list.
   I'm going to start listing things on Monday, and I've got lots of Christmas-specific pieces that will be up at the beginning of November, too, but I think I'm about ready for it all. Ish.

   I've also got lots of bloggy things I want to get done, and it's time management that seems to be my real problem. Opportunity to put together crafting tutorials is scarce and I feel a little bit like I'm drowning in little details that need doing - jars need grassing, animals need sealing, pillow boxes need gluing, then there are the countless supplies I need to buy and always forget about because I buy them so infrequently and won't notice I'm in need until I'm out. Not good when this includes envelopes...
   I'm working on a plan to eliminate this, but already it's getting me down. There doesn't seem to be much room for writing, and that bums me out, especially after the awesome progress I made with my book while I was away. There was a single but immensely important and complicated detail that needed figuring out that tied together all the little things that had happened, expected and otherwise, and I'd been pulling my hair out over it for well over a month. But while I was away, it suddenly clicked, and I got it down. I made seven A4 pages of notes, by hand, in 50 minutes.
   I'm determined to get work done, though, because I know from the past 5 years that there's going to be little time for recreation in November, and none whatsoever in December - in fact, in December, there truly aren't enough hours in the day.

   But I'm clambering on top of it all. It's slipping about beneath me, but I'm staying up here. It's only two months. My blogging intentions stretch until mid December, and my sales typically dry up around then, too. After that I'll have two easy weeks, then my birthday shortly after, and I'll get to breathe again.
   I'm lucky I have such a teeny tiny family. Christmas isn't full of familial tensions like they are for a lot of other people, so I'm quite happy with this instead.