I Heart Art: Portland's latest Mixer Match event was last month. This was the first Mixer Match I participated in as a member of the Leadership Council. I helped organize the event with Jen Neitzel and Deenie Wallace. I had a great time and learned so much.
The night of the event, I worked the check in table with my sis. We did this at the last Mixer Match too. I did most of the email correspondence with folks about the event, so it was easy to check people in. It was great matching faces to names and meeting lots of new people.
The event was at the very cool Design Within Reach. This is such the perfect venue for our event and the folks at DWR are so gracious and nice. We had a great spread of food and I made 120 mini cupcakes.
This is most of the Leadership Council. It's such a great group of people and I'm really honored to be apart of this incredible organization. Our next Mixer Match even will be in July. I can't wait!
For my Birthday, my sis took me to see OVO by Cirque du Soleil. This was my 3rd Cirque show, but my first in their yellow and blue tent. We had second row seats and they were incredible! I had no idea what the show was about before seeing it. I just loved everything about it. The talent these folks have is just incredible. There many breath taking moments and overall it was just spectacular.
These ants girls were my favorite. It was great to see them so close up. I could see the small adjusts they made with their feet and also hear the head ant girl call cues to the group. Seeing the girls being flipped back and forth so effortlessly was just extraordinary.
This is the official trailer for the show. Definitely see this production if you get the chance.
Before OVO we went to Interuban for lunch. At the Expo center there were these huge wind chimes. I would love to have one for my house. The entire day was great fun and I'm so glad I got to spend it with my sis.
Record Store Day is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. Founded in 2007 as a way for independent record stores and artists to celebrate their love of music. It has grown each year and this year it was huge with over 300 Record Store Day special releases. We bought more vinyl this year than any other.
This year we started early since Music Millennium opened at 8am. When we arrived about 9am, the line to buy music snaked through the entire store. I'd never seen anything like it. People were buying hundreds of dollars of vinyl. It was incredible.
Our second stop was Jackpot which had another very long line.
Our third stop was at CD Game Exchange. I love to look through their dollar bins.
Stop four was at Exhiled.
Then we took a break to refuel.
Our last stop was to Everyday Music. We spent a long time in this huge store.
Voodoo doughnuts are a must after a long hard day of record shopping.
We took our doughnuts to Bushwackers Cider and relaxed with a pint. It was such a fun day. I always enjoy spending time with my mom-in-law and this year, my brother-in-law came too. I can't wait for next year!
It's been almost exactly a month since TEDxConcordiaUPortland's event this year. It's really taken me this long to fully process that extraordinary day. For the entire week after the event, I floated on a TEDx high. So many inspiring people with so many inspiring ideas kept swirling through my brain and the positiveness of it all just felt good. Now the videos have been posted and I've re-watched them all and a few I've seen many times. It's really wonderful to have the talks accessible online to re-hear and re-learn at anytime. I'm so honored and proud that I was on the planning team that created such an amazing event.
I'm a huge fan of The Circus Project. I was at their big performance held at the Portland Art Museum last December and highlighted in the short video that is shown during Jenn Cohen's talk. The aerialist who performed at TEDxConcordiaUPortland was truly extraordinary and received a well deserved standing ovation.
The only other standing ovation of the day went to Governor Barbara Roberts. I was so grateful to hear her speak. She became Oregon's first female Governor when I was a junior in high school. She has always been a big inspiration to me. It was great to hear her talk about how she overcame incredible odds to better the life of her autistic son and then to go on to become Governor.
Goodnight Billygoat's stop motion movie accompanied by live music was another highlight for me. Each minute of video takes about 1 month to create. Their dedication to their art is so incredible.
One of the funnier talks was Colleen Wainwright. I had met her last year at the World Domination Summit and she is such a hoot! She went from a self-proclaimed selfish asshole to raising over 100 thousand dollars for WriteGirl to celebrate her 50th birthday.
Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls is such a great organization. My good friend participated in Ladies Rock Camp and loved it so much that she is going to do it again. It was great hearing more about this organziation and seeing one band perform. The singer has a crazy good voice.
Mark Frohnmayer's talk about the future of the automobile and the crazy cool cars his company is creating definitely got my husband and I thinking. We've always said that the next car we buy will be electric. Now we are thinking about getting a car from Arcimoto, his company located in Eugene, OR.
There were many, many more wonderful talks that occured at our event that you can access here on YouTube. I hope you get the chance to watch them all.
I took this picture at the TEDxConcordiaUPortland rehearsal, the night before the big event. Sitting in this near empty room, surrounded by planning team members finishing up last minute details such as putting name tags on lanyards, I was overwhelmed by all the greatness. Attending meetings or working on projects at my house is one thing, but to realize that I am one part of this incredible event which is so much larger than the sum of its parts is extraordinary.
Photo credit: Armosa Studios
My main contribution was coordinating the gift bags. I took this on, because I thought that was one area that I could do well. I also completed three big projects for the gift bags that you can see here, here, and here.
I was blown away to see this picture up on the two very large projection screens during the event. I tried to take a picture of my picture, but I was too shocked to get my camera out in time. The thank you card activity was a big success and it was fun to collect many of the cards people had filled out at the end of the day.
Eugene Lee is a medical student at my school. I encouraged him to submit a design for the promotional material. The team loved his fish paintings and a mascot was born. Bubba is the orange fish and an example of how the ordinary always has the potential of becoming extraordinary. Eugene's work was used on the posters, programs, t-shirts, and elsewhere.
Kin Trio, Eugene's band, was our house band and played at the beginning and end of each of the 4 sessions. Concordia's Library had an exhibit of Eugene's paintings in their gallery.
Photo credit: Egg Press
A few weeks before the event, the company who was going to print our program covers fell through. I helped arrange for Egg Press (who also donated 100 thank you cards) to letterpress the covers. They generously donated their time and money to us. They are amazing people! The program covers are gorgeous.
I collected thousands and thousands of Acupuncture needle tubes for the stage art installation. The concept sounded really cool, but I had trouble picturing it in my mind's eye.
It's stunningly beautiful in real life. At rehearsal, the lighting guys took the time to coordinated the colors to every speaker's clothing. The end result was spectacular. Note how good it looks in every talk you watch. Crystal Shenk's talk on why she created the Aurora is so moving. Also after hearing her talk, her choice of using Acupuncture needle tubes made perfect sense.
During Joe Smith's rehearsal, it was realized that he needed a garbage can for his talk. Michelle Jones, Organizer Extraordinaire, called out to me and asked if I could get a garbage can. Sure thing! Definitely watch this short talk. It's a very simple idea, but presented in such an entertaining way it has definitely stuck with me. I now Shake and Fold everytime I wash my hands and everyone I know who was at TEDx still does too. Joe's talk was the TED.com talk of the day, today. It's kind of cool to think that people all over the world might see my garbage can.
Photo credit: Armosa Studios
The day of the event, I manned the registration table. After the initial check in, I was able to see every part of this extraordinary event. I left with a sense that I was part of something greater than myself and that is such a magnificent feeling that I will always be grateful for.
This is the last big project I did for the TEDxConcordiaUPortland gift bags! I wanted to contribute something to the gift bags, since I was in charge of coordinating them. After much brainstorming, I settled on making buttons!
I arranged for I Heart Art: Portland (Thank you!!) to sponsor the buttons. At first I was going to borrow their button maker, but I've wanted a button maker for years and this seemed to be the perfect excuse to acquire a new tool. I bought mine from Buttonmakers.net in Seattle. I am super impressed by their service and their site is filled with videos that I found very handy.
With much help from my husband, I made 1800 buttons! Each gift bag will contain 3 different buttons. Bubba is the orange fish. He is the mascot of our event and you will see Bubba in many places around Concordia. He represents how everyone has the potential of becoming extraordinary. I'm really happy with how this project turned out. I'm also glad that I was able to make something for the gift bags.
Our event is just a little over a week a way! You can still buy tickets here. Tickets will be on sale until Monday, March 26th. I do hope you can attend the event. Seeing all of the behind the scenes greatness going on, it's going to be such an incredible day. I can barely contain my excitement!
I'm super excited to share this project that I helped put together for the TEDxConcordiaUPortland event on March 31st, 2012. When the planning team was brainstorming on what we wanted to put in the gift bags, we came up with the idea of having a thank you card in each bag.
We thought this would be a great way for the attendees to participate in the day's event by writing a thank you card to the person who moved them the most that day. It would also be a way to engage the audience and get them conscious of all the greatness around them since they had to focus on the one thing that inspired them the most.
Now it was my job to make this project happen. We definitely wanted to have thank you cards from artists in the community, but asking a small business for 600 cards seemed to be too much of a hardship. So instead, I asked 6 local artists to each donate 100 cards.
Deciding who to ask was hard. There are so many amazing artists in town and my initial list was long. After I sent out a first round of asks, I was really surprised and grateful that so many folks said yes! And the folks that declined were so nice to let me know soon. I'm continually amazed at how wonderful artists in Portland are. Their generosity is inspiring.
This whole project couldn't have happened without the help of these artists. All were so great at staying in touch and letting me know when I could pick up cards. I have to admit when I first took this adventure on, I was a bit worried about pulling this off. What if nobody would donate? What if someone flaked out and we only had 500 cards? It was enough to keep me anxious for a month or two, but slowly all my fears just disappeared after working with these artists. I knew we could make this happen and it would be amazing.
Maria, the owner of Collage, was also a huge help! She generously offered to donate cello bags for many of the cards. This really saved the day, because these bags would help protect the cards from getting squished. I also wanted to include instructions for the attendees, so they would know what to do with the cards.
Figuring out the instructions was the next big task of this project. Besides what to say, I needed to decide what they would look like. I wanted the directions to be cute, but not distract from the actual cards. I also needed something simple to replicate 600 times.
I used my Sizzix Big Kick to create a nice edge to the instructions. It was super easy to cut all 600 out in a few short hours. I originally bought my Big Kick to create my sister's felt flower wedding bouquet and I've used it so much since. It really is a handy tool
I'm so happy with how this turned out! It was important to me to have a handmade touch to these gift bags. I really hope the TEDxConcordiaUPortland attendees enjoy this activity. I can't wait to see who inspires me the most.
At the end of last year, I joined two committees. I decided that since I wasn't going to sell in 2012, volunteering for organizations that I love would be a great way to stay connected to my community. Now I'm on the planning team for TEDxConcordiaUPortland! I'm thrilled to be helping them this year. I attended their inaugural event last year and I was so impressed with everything. From the speakers to the organization of the day, everything exceeded my expectations.
I opted to help with the gift bags this year, because I figured that would be the best place where I could lend a crafty hand. One of my friends works for Tazo Tea and helped me get a donation. They graciously donated enough tea to create a 4 teabag sampler. I broke down all the individual boxes of tea to create the samplers by wrapping them with hemp twine. I liked the minimal packaging and the whole 600 tea samplers were pretty fast to make. I became super adept at tying bows.
Registration for the event is still open! I really hope you get a chance to attend this year. This year's theme is Becoming Extraordinary and our speaker line up is very impressive. There will also be much more goodness in the gift bags.
When my friend, Jen Neitzel, told me that she had created The Maven Circle with Jena Coray of Miss Modish, I was thrilled for her! Jen's face lit up when she talked about all the great ideas they had to help others ignite their spark. I can't think of anyone better to help motivate others to achieve their goals.
About 6 months ago, Jen made an off-the-cuff comment in passing that hit me to my core. It helped me change my outlook on crafting and I made a fresh new blog start at the beginning of 2012.
And now it's February...and I've stalled. I have lots of excuses and some of them are even pretty darn valid, but the fact remains that I haven't done much towards the goals I set up for myself for this year.
I'm hoping that this will change soon. I've signed up for Jen's and Jena's first online class called The Catalyst Course. Just reading about it makes me feel like I can get back on track. I know I will find the motivation and support I need to ignite my spark.
Watch this video to learn more about this course. You can also find more info here. The class starts in March and there is still time to register. I will be blogging about this 6 week class and the changes I make because of it. I can't wait to start!
I love living in the Brooklyn Neighborhood. It's one of the oldest neighborhoods in Portland and it was the downtown city center until the Ross Island Bridge was built. The additions of the Powell Blvd and McLaughlin Blvd caused our neighborhood to became boxed in by these very busy streets. Add the Brooklyn Yard to the mix and our neighborhood is sort of stuck like a weird island with not the best access to the neighborhoods next to us.
That is all going to change soon! It feels like I've been waiting for the Milwaukie Max Line forever! We are finally to the point where construction is gearing up to start. This 7.3 mile track will transform SE Portland. This new line will start at Portland State University, stop at OHSU in South Waterfront, cross over the brand new bridge (which is being built now), stop at OMSI and the Spring Water corridor, travel down 17th Ave, stop at Bybee (West Moreland), another stop along the Spring Water corridor, stop in downtown Milwaukie and eventually end in Clackamus. How amazing is that? Brooklyn will go from almost no access to extreme access and livability. The new MAX line will also create much better bike and pedestrian paths along the line.
This line will be completed in September 2015 and it will completely change the way I live my life. I can't wait! Watch these two short movies that explain where all the stops will be and the improvements that will happen. I will have a MAX stop 5 blocks from my house It's an exciting time!
Last Saturday, I saw the stage production of West Side Story. This was a pretty big deal for me. West Side Story is tied with A Chorus Line (I saw this last year!) as my favorite musical. I discovered the movie when I was 15 years old by renting it from the Multnomah County Library. I remember forcing my friends to watch this musical which at 15 in 1990 wasn't the most hip thing and my friends weren't thrilled. I have always loved musicals, but something about this music and dancing just mesmerized me.
I found the record (as in vinyl) at a garage sale and wore that sucker out. I was so worried about ruining the record, that I found a back up copy. The songs are just so fun to sing to. With music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Steven Sondheim, the songs are incredible.
My favorite characters are Riff, played by the very dreamy Russ Tamblyn and Anita, played the incredible Rita Moreno. For me, these two make the movie. Especially after I learned that Natalie Wood's voice is dubbed; she's not actually singing.
My only experience with this story was the movie, until now. I knew that the play would be a bit different and I had looked up the lyrics to each song, so I could still sing along to the slight word changes. The play is much more risque! While watching, I kept wishing that I could have had the opportunity to see Debbie Allen perform as Anita (this clip is her performing on the Today show in 1980). The production I saw was very good, but Debbie Allen is a goddess.
I left the play last Saturday on a total high. I've been listening to the album all week! I can't stop. Everything about it makes me happy.
Dance at the Gym was always going to be my song choice for ice skating in the Olympics. Yes, I've only ice skated a handful of times in my life and it kind of terrifies me. Still in my dreams, I skate to this song. :)
I decided that in 2012 I'm going to focus more on my walking blog. I started That Jolie Girl Walks last January as a project to get me walking more. It worked. I love the combination of photography and walking. The main goal is walking, so I take pictures as fast as possible.
I love the simplicity of this blog. I decided to only use one Hipstamatic setting (Pistil film, John S lens) on my iphone, because I liked that look, I knew how that lens worked, and I wanted to make sure my pictures would turn out. I don't edit any of the pictures. I also post pictures in the order of my walk with the exception of the first picture. I write about pictures if I feel there is something to say. Other times I'll post pictures with no text. The number of photos varies with each walk. Sometimes I happen upon lots of amazing things; other times, not so much. I always post at least one picture to mark that walk.
The ease of posting really helps make this blog a reality. Everything about the entire process is fun and I get the benefit of talking long walks. It's a win-win. I have a button on my side bar, so you can easily access my walking blog. I hope you check it out!
Almost exactly a year ago, my husband promoted me in the household. He made me the VP of Localization and Simplification. He thought that since I was working part time I could devote a few of my new found hours to simplifying our lives. It was a great idea and I loved having a title, but I did nothing with the title for a year. It sat on the back burner while life continued to be hectic and awesome and just life.
I kept coming back to this title and all of it's possibilities. I really liked everything about it, but it didn't feel complete. If I wanted to really create a better life for us, I needed to add one more item to better round out this project. I am now the Vice President of Localization, Simplification and Healthification. Now, a new year is here and it's time to fully embrace my vice presidency.
Localization - We are proud Oregonians and Portlanders. We are also devoted to the local movement. I firmly believe in the power of voting with our dollars. While we already buy local often, I will work on doing more. Besides consuming local products, as VP I'll work on getting us more involved in our community as well as taking advantage of the amazing cultural activities Portland has to offer.
Simplification - This is all about creating more time by finding ways to organize all aspects of our life. From time savers to space savers, I'll be finding new ways to carve out more precious free time from our busy lives.
Healthification - While looking for a word to describe this third arm of the presidency, Healthification popped up on google searches. It's defined as: the process of getting your health groove on. This is the perfect term that I wanted. Healthification will cover everything from eating healthier to getting more exercise to finding ways to decrease stress. This will be a conscious shift to improve our health.
Becoming the VP will help me in my quest of crafting a better life. I hope you join me on this journey and maybe even learn a couple of things that you can incorporate into your own life.
I've had my tagline Crafty, Yet Shy since I started my blog back in April 2005. It fit me perfectly and I found courage using it. It became a shield to protect myself as I entered the scary new world of blogging and to let people who visited my blog to get an instant insight into my life. I'm shy. It's something I've struggled with all my life. Owning this trait also empowered me to start working through some of my shy-ness.
2007-2010 blog banner
Luckily, we always continue to grow. Over the years, I started to enter the craft community. I made friends and went to events. In 2011, I did many things that were far from my comfort level - and I didn't die. Probably the biggest accomplishment was participating as a vendor in the Mixer Match in August. The crafty, yet shy girl of yesteryear would never have attempted this. And I'm continuing to push that comfort zone. I've recently joined two committees. Since I'm not going to sell in 2012, I thought maybe committee work would be an outlet to help me stay in the craft community. Let me tell you, I am freaked (super freaked!) about being on these committees, but I also know it will be a great learning experience for me. It will help me to continue to grow.
2005-2007 blog banner
When I decided to shift the goals of my home life, I knew I wanted to create a brand new blog banner to help make a visual shift too. Very organically, my new tagline emerged. Crafting a Better Life - encapsulates my change in path. It has a positive intention and a mandate for me to follow. My hope is that my blogging will spur me to make these new exciting changes for my household. What do you think of my new banner?
I've been percolating my thoughts for the last couple months on what direction I want to take in 2012. That's the wonderful thing about a new year - a fresh start is possible and it's a great time to make adjustments to one's life and to focus on what is really important. 2011 was the year of investigating the life of a professional crafter. I accomplished most of the goals I had set up for myself. I was selling my crafts in stores. I participated in 3 craft fairs over the holiday season. I even had an online store set up with my wares. I met great people and stepped out of my comfort zone several times.
I found myself perched on the ledge of finally making it. I was far from being a financial success, but I was at: The. Next. Step. I have been at this place before. I've had the ideal of being a professional crafter for as long as I can remember. Each time I've found myself at the place where the next leap is required, I've always pulled back. For 2011 - I was determined to finally follow through. This was my dream, right? It was time to stop pulling back. So I gave it all the gusto I had and I found myself on the verge...and I didn't want to make that next step.
Just because you make things, doesn't mean you have to sell.
This was said by a good friend in passing to someone else. I happened to catch this sentence and it just felt right. I started to tell people that I wasn't going to sell in 2012. Hard! This was a hard decision to make and I waffled on it almost everyday. It has little to do with making money. This is a paradigm shift to my core identity. I've always identified as a crafter or creative. If I am not actively working towards the goal of professional crafter - who am I?
I am a crafter. I like to make things - and I will continue to do so. But I'm going to hang up my hat of professional crafter, at least, for 2012. While soul searching these past couple of months, I figured out a few things about myself. Well, I've always known these things, but now I'm at the point where I can embrace them. I like my day job. I work 30 hours a week and it gives me everything I need to survive (pay, health care, bus pass, etc). I like the structure of a day job. I like being able to leave work at work and not think of it again until I return. I like that taxes and such are handled for me; I like having holidays and time off. My job is one mile (3 bus stops) from my house, I'm off work at 2:30pm, and I have Fridays off. It's a dream schedule. I have finally decided to stop fighting a job that is such a good fit for me.
In my free time, I am going to use my crafty skills to make my home life better - all of the duties I had shirked while working on my craft business. I'm looking forward to embracing more domestic duties and crafting a better life for me and my husband. 2012 will be a great year!
During the first part of December, I attended 3 circuses in 2 weeks. I hadn't planned for this to happen, but it was so wonderful to experience three completely different circuses in such a sort period of time.
The first circus was Michael Jackson's The Immortal World Tour put on by Cirque du Soleil. My husband bought tickets 18 months ago and I had forgotten all about this until just a few days before. One reviewer said that the show was quite bizarre, so I had no expectations. The energy in the packed Rose Garden was infectious. So many people were dressed in sequins and I was super excited.
It was a huge production and some aspects of it were amazing. The dancers were all very talented and it had the Cirque du Soleil feel that is so wonderful. It was also completely strange. There were parts to the show that were just weird and I couldn't figure out why they were part of the show. But overall, it was great fun and I'm so glad we went.
While waiting for the Cirque du Soleil circus to start, my husband got a text from a friend asking if we wanted to be on the guest list to a circus at Imago. Our friend was one of the musicians in the production. Of course, we said yes! So 2 days later, we were at Imago to see Charvari - An Adventurous Circus about the Journey of Immigration.
This very small production had 7 cast members and 4 musicians. I really loved being able to see them perform so close. One lady did aerial work with chains that was so impressive and kind of scary. I was always afraid she would be hit by the heavy chains, but of course she performed perfectly. This production was mostly in Spanish with some English thrown in. It was night and day from the Cirque du Soleil performance, but I liked it just as much.
A week later, we were at the Portland Art Museum to see The Circus Project. I had been a backer for their Kickstarter campaign and I received two tickets to their gala performance. The Circus Project headed by Jenn Cohen is a program that takes at risk homeless youth and teaches them to be professional circus performers in less than one year. You can read more about the program here.
Again, I really had no idea what to expect with this production. We were seated at round tables with candles and it had a nightclub feel to it. Odysseus came out on his segway boat and was the narrator of the show. He was the perfect MC to keep things light and to fill time during performance set up. Almost the entire show was done in the audience. I was so impressed by this! We were able to see the performers very close and the audience felt like part of the show. Odysseus even let me fondle his nipple at one point.
The performers were amazing! Each played a different god or goddess keeping with the Odysseus theme of the show. It's really crazy to think that they had been performing for such a short period of time. They were definitely pros.
Out of the three performances, I think I like the Circus Project the best probably because the audience felt so included and it was fun to see these kids doing such amazing feats.
This is a great short film about the performance that we saw and the kids in the performance. It will give you a sense of what the Circus Project is about.
This Friday and Saturday, my sis and I will be sharing a booth at the Capitol Hill Holiday Market. This is the first year that Capitol Hill school has held a craft fair and my sis is one of the organizers. This craft fair will be much smaller than Crafty Wonderland (which was fab and I hope to blog about it soon!) which I think will be nice change of pace. This the last craft fair of the season that I will be participating in. I hope you get a chance to check it out and help support Capitol Hill school.
I can't believe Christmas is in 10 days! Are you ready? I'm about 75% ready. :)
Tomorrow is the big show and I think I'm ready! I got up first thing this morning and made a list of the last minute things I still need to do. Luckily, it's not a very long list. One of the nice things about being a bit (ok, a lot) panicked is that I'm definitely prepared. My stuff has been packed for a week.
I've also finished researching the vendors. I've have a list off 33 vendors with their website, the item I'm interested in, the price, and who I'm buying that item for. Granted, at this time, it's a broad list which will be narrowed down when I'm making my purchases. I'm leaving ample room for the items I found online not being at the fair as well as new items that I haven't seen yet. I like having a bit of spontaneity while making my purchases, but having a list ahead of time lets me focus and takes some of the guesswork/indecisiveness out of the mix.
I'll be in booth 35 this weekend! Come say 'Hi' if you get the chance!
My craft bucket list is a mile long, but this weekend I get to check a huge item off of this list. I will be selling my felt flower rings, barrettes, and earrings this weekend at Crafty Wonderland!
Ever since the very first Crafty Wonderland in the basement of The Doug Fir, I have wanted to participate in this amazing event. I've applied many times and this year I was finally accepted! They receive so many applications from amazing artists that I am truly grateful that I was selected this year. In fact, I was so prepared to not be accepted that I was pretty much in shock for a few weeks after getting the acceptance email.
That shock has now worn off and now I'm walking that fine line of utter excitement and sheer panic. I know I'm ready. I know I've done everything I can to prepare. I know that I will have an amazing time this weekend.
I do hope you get a chance to attend this weekend at the convention center. Stop by and say Hi. The first 150 people in the door each day will receive a great goodie bag. It's also an easy way to get all of your holiday shopping done. I will be looking up each vendor this week and making a plan of what presents I want to buy for friends and family. I've found that doing this research ahead of time really helps me. In the moment of the huge sale with thousands of others around, it's hard to make decisions. Especially if you are as indecisive as I am. But having a game plan, I find I actually buy more things and get more checked off my list.
It's been a little quiet on my blog for the past month or so. It's that time of year when my focus is completely on the holiday season. I'm blessed to be in 3 craft fairs in December and I've been working like mad to prepare. I was tempted to take a formal blogging hiatus until Jan 1st, but I know I'll have a few things to share between now and then.
Just in case time gets away from me, as it's so easy can at this time of year, I wish you a wonderful (and sane) holiday season.
