Lately

   I've been quiet for a couple of days, I've missed my blogging schedule including a few days of '25 Photos Until Christmas', but things have been so hectic lately I've hardly had the chance to breathe!

   My shop has been doing amazingly this Christmas, and I'm so proud of it and of myself for managing to keep on top of it and having all orders going out either on time or early, but, if I'm honest, the pressure is finally starting to reach me. I'm working until midnight and, unsurprisingly, I've been very tired for the past week, physically and mentally run down, yawning all the time and feeling generally negative. I've even been sleeping through Naruto on an evening, which Seeg and I have been rewatching - the moment my head hits the pillow, I'm out. I know that's far better than being kept up at night, but I'm struggling to handle it all now, so everything else has had to take a back seat. I knew it was going to be busy, but I didn't expect myself to be this run down.

   Unfortunately and in particular, my daily Christmas photograph has also been pushed aside, not because I've not taken them but because I've been too busy to upload them - and, sod's law, when I finally did find the time to upload them onto the computer I found that the connection cable between camera and PC has broken and my PC has no SD card reader, so I've had to buy one in. I have an alternative camera I can use until then but that still means I'm several days behind, and that does make me kind of sad given how excited I was about it.

   I've also had lots of crafts I've wanted to get up on the blog. Most of them are half-finished, but I'm hoping I can find the time very soon to finish up. One positive thing, however, was that I'd planned a little crafty get-together with my best friend, and since she'd taken time off of work for it because we've not seen eachother in 2 months, I was unable to back out. Of course I didn't want to, and it was so nice to just relax for an afternoon rather than work work work.

   If this year goes anything like last year, my Christmas sales will come to a screeching stop in the next day or two and I'll be done for the year, so I'm glad the pressure only started to kick in right at the end or I'm not sure how I'd have coped, but I am still really really happy with this year's success. I've got two more post office trips - Friday and Monday - and after the 21st I won't be posting anything again until January, shutting up shop for Christmas. I'm quite excited and I've got it all planned out: a Christmas-fragranced bath after the post office on Monday, wrapping the presents while indulging in a deserved box of chocolates while doing so on Tuesday, hiding out of the way while Seeg wraps my presents on Wednesday, and bouncing off of the walls on Thursday, all while fitting in lots of movie nights from this point until then. Festive stuff. Star Wars, The Hobbit, Minions - the typical Christmas stuff, you understand.

   If I'm honest, just thinking about all of that has calmed me a considerable amount! In the mean time, I'm going to take my free time to get my blog back on track and to just relax and enjoy the run-up to Christmas in my own way.