READ ALL THE BOOKS!

Obviously, as you will have learned if you've spent any amount of time reading this blog, I love books; own loads of books; am constantly buying tons of books; have a TBR list that's really more of a bin system that would probably take up my whole room if I put them all together....

Just a little while ago, I shared a list of 14 books that I am hoping to read this year, which were mostly books from OwlCrate boxes and ones I started but didn't finish last year (or previously). And the more I think about - the more upcoming book releases I see, the more unfinished reads I find in my room, the more books I find in a corner that I forgot I owned, the more amazing reads I hear about on the OwlCrate Society... the more stressed out I get.

Allow me to explain... I love reading, so much, and the more I hear/read about amazing-sounding books (and see the covers, oh, the covers *swoon*) the more I want to READ ALL THE BOOKS! And then I'll finally get my hands on one of these amazing books, and I'll start to read it, and it's great, but unfortunately I can't read all day, nor can I read a whole book in a day if I could read all day. There are things that come up (like that recurring pesky "work" business), and other hobbies/interests that take my time, so that I really don't end up getting through books very quickly. Which either results in trying to read several books at once (because it's just not going fast enough!) or just feeling totally stressed out that I can't possibly READ ALL THE BOOKS!

Anyway, just felt like venting about that for a little bit. I realize that this is such a silly thing to stress about, so please don't lecture me, all you practical-thinking people out there. I just felt like sharing. And maybe I should refer to it as a frustration rather than a stress. Semantics...

So, am I alone in this? Does anybody else feel this way, or get stressed out frustrated by not being able to read as many books as they'd like to, or in the time frame they'd like to? Let me know in the comments!

Hello Again Thursday (Hello December!)

Hey guys, I just thought I'd follow up on last week's non-bookish post about my craft sale preparations...

The sale took place on Saturday, November 26th. It was a nice day: not too cold, a bit of rain & overcast, but no storm. The location was easy to find and seemed to have been advertised locally, so I was still optimistic, right up until 11am. When I found my table, I realized that the tables were packed way too close together. It made for awkward set up, and an even more awkward day as we tried not to bump into the other artisans beside and behind us. That wouldn't have been too bad, but I was also upstairs. I heard from some shoppers that it was the first time they had used this upstairs space for artisans for this event, so I feel like it's possible that people didn't even come up. There were shoppers, but not as many as I would have expected. Artisans were wandering around as well, so it was really hard to tell the shoppers from the organizers and artisans.

In the end, it was a long day. Not a bad day, but a long day. I shared the table with my mom (she had homemade Christmas cards for sale), and I think between both of us we sold around $60 worth of merchandise. It's not bad, but I have done much better at the sale I usually go to.

So, feeling a bit discouraged at the end of the day, I posted the leftover ornaments to my Facebook page, and sold another dozen right off - go figure! I still have some left, if ever anyone is interested. :)

Thanks for listening!

Hello Thursday

Hello Friends,

It doesn't always have to be about books, right? Well, today it's not. Today it's just me chatting about what's up.

I've been trying really hard to get a post published this week, but it's just not happening. I have lots of ideas and so many drafts on the go, but I've just been really busy for the last few weeks and haven't had time to complete anything, and this week is especially crazy. I've been preparing for a Christmas craft sale taking place this weekend...

About a month ago, I heard that there was a possibility of a trip (through an organization I've travelled with before, to a country I've been hoping to visit) next fall that I really want to attend. So even though it's early days and they haven't officially announced the trip yet, I decided I had better start doing what I could to raise funds as soon as possible. Because, while I do have enough currently in my savings account, I'm already planning a trip to Florida this spring with my best friend, and that's going to end up taking a lot of my savings.

In the past, my most reliable methods of fundraising have been bake sales and Christmas craft sales. Since it was just in time for Christmas, I decided to go for it. I started whipping up some of my polymer clay tree ornaments, and found a sale that still had an available spot at a reasonable price and reserved.

I don't have a ton of stuff made up, but I've prepared five each of six different designs, plus a few others. Hopefully my table won't look too bare, and people will buy, buy, buy! :)

Around here, so far anyway, polymer clay is a pretty rare medium to see at craft sales. It's all about knitting, weaving, jewelry-making, toll painting, and card-making in these parts. At any given craft sale you will find at least one artisan selling these wares. So I do have unique-ness on my side. The style of my ornaments does not appeal to everyone, certainly, and I know that (in this area) the prices aren't necessarily what people want to pay for a Christmas ornament (however, I have priced similar sized polymer clay art online and they are about three times the price of mine...), but hopefully it will go well. I usually do pretty well, but I'm not going to the same sale I usually go to. I've never been to this one before, so I don't know how much traffic there will be, or if it's a big-spender crowd or not (most likely not).

So, anyway... all that just to explain my lack of bookish posts on the blog this week. I'll get caught up next week, at some point, I promise.

Until then, wish me luck at my sale! I'll see you all soon.