Only 9 Days Left!

I'm not really panicking. I've shopped for the most important gifts, and the tree is up and decorated. We aren't having Christmas dinner at our house this year, so all we have to do is bring potatoes (mashed for my kids, roasted for Jon) I've made the Christmas pudding (my first attempt)
So, why do I feel anxious that there's only 9 days left then? I think it's just mandatory to feel stressed in the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. My daughter is having a stressful week too. She's been trying to plan a party bus and dinner for a HUGE group of friends, to celebrate her birthday and her friend's birthday. They are the last 2 in their group to turn 19. Look out-- they're all going to be 'legal' now. Why is she planning her own birthday, you ask? She says if she doesn't do it, something will go wrong and it won't happen. It has taken a lot of work to get money from each of her friends to come up with the deposit for the bus. I just hope they don't let her down after all this trouble she's gone to. They want to have a bunch of kids over here prior to the party bus for hot dogs and hamburgers...at least I'm not working this weekend, so I can try to help and supervise a bit.

I've been wondering what happened to my sales in my Etsy shop for the past 10 days, but then I realized today that I've been getting emails from local buyers all week. It's actually been my best week of sales so far, and that's all overflow from the craft fairs I did, people who picked up my business cards or saw one of my items that a friend bought. It's been great! Even got a second order today from someone who received her first items and wanted more (thanks C!)

I'm working on plans to open my second Etsy shop soon. Jon is building me a light box because the first sets of photos he took weren't up to his standards:-) This next shop will be really fun because it involves doing something I really enjoy. Juicybags is fun, but I got a bit burnt out from all the pouch cleaning and sewing. I will keep it going, but on a smaller scale for a while- listing items on Etsy that I have in stock rather than doing custom orders.

I met someone briefly at the 'Best of 604' event last week. She's a local blogger with a very interesting story and I'm enjoying reading it. I especially enjoyed this post. It's a list of 20 memorable moments of her life. I thought it was a great idea, so I tried to write one myself this morning. Maybe because I've got about 15 years on her-- but my list is really LONG already and I'm not done. I keep remembering things and adding them into the middle. One thing I noticed while reading it over...sadly it seems to be the negative things that stick out in my memories the most. I must try to balance it a little before I dare post it. Everyone will think I've had a horrible life and that's definitely not the case!