1. marathon 1 Portland: great trip was supposed to end with marathon, but for me, it ended with a 10 ml fail and sad charrow
2. Iron and Wine viewed at the distance a 15 year old would approve of...smashed against the front fence, and we actually were sandwiched between teens who clearly had heard the twilight sound track. And yes, we did feel too old.
3. finished another book....but still have to figure out what to do with it. Going to enter a book contest and if that is a no go I will do some self publishing.
4. Signed up for the Philadelphia marathon...because I'm dumb (but I finished and it goes on the list of crazy things I've done)
5. Went to Peru and Ecuador...and still need to upload illustrations and photos
6. Started closing on an apartment we found. We were going to be owners!!
7. said apartment fell through
8. crap...where are we going to live?
9. probably will sublet across the hall...literally...for another year while we look for something new. The pros of this other place: it has sun, faces the back, and the kitchen was redone! No more black counters...which are gross.
10. entered contests for holiday recipe, card contest, CMYK Mag, Comm Arts, and maybe a few more...good bye money
Im sure there is more, but it feels like more than enough. Being busy is good, but I feel completely run down. I have not run in a few days because I have some head cold which makes it hard enough to breath while sitting.
I have to fit in all the divesting and packing with teaching classes and working...not to mention xmas. It was so much easier when I could ignore xmas. I viewed from the outside and thought what a pretty holiday it was. I loved the lights and candles and it was such a beautiful thing that I could work on a holiday I did not celebrate and get paid time and a half....oh those days. Now I see what this holiday feels like from the inside. It is stressful. It involves spending money you don't have and if you decide to break the mold and not spend money...well then you are the jerk who didn't buy people things. And instead of spending money you end up getting neatly packaged guilt.
I do pretty well on the holidays, which is the flip side of things. I sell a lot of commissions, prints, and cards. I think this time of year is partly what keeps me feeling like I can do this for a living. Its not that I do not do well the rest of the year, but December it all comes at once and keeps me busy. Likewise, this year, I bought most of the gifts in Peru and Ecuador to small vendors and then the rest came from one person companies. In fact, even most of my major vendors are small businesses.
People you should support:
eviro totes - They are a woman owned, woman run, american company operating out of New Hampshire. They have bottle cotton (100% post consumer bottle plastic) and a recycled cotton made 80% post production cotton and 20% bottle cotton. They print on site and do custom anything. They make my totes, wine totes, java jackets, and soon they will be making my tea towels....those will come next year. I might make a kick starter for it.
Sticker Mule - they make custom stickers. I get my squirrel wearing a bow tie stickers from them and soon!!! I will be getting sticker labels for Christmas and Hanukkah packages. The stickers are not shiny and are vinyl, which makes them classy and sturdy. I have gotten personal thank you's from the company for using them and that makes me feel special. They do a bunch of other things, which I have yet to take advantage of such as skins and die cuts...but clearly at some point a die cut squirrel is in order. In fact, if you think you might want a skin for your lap top, ipad, iphone, or kindle...let me know :)
If you do want stickers you can get $10 bucks off by using this link.
Ok, off to make some cards and get ready to move
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