The first week of December was gone in a flash! This has been a very focused yet stressful week of hard work that ended with an awesome party and a Saturday with nothing that absolutely needed to be done.
I had my biggest sale of the year on Cyber Monday, with 30% off. I’m only putting this picture up here because this particular set was my favorite and it’s STILL AVAILABLE (lol). I had a surprising number of sales over the weekend, basically wiping out most of my inventory. Which was great because it took some of the pressure off of feeling like I needed to make more dolls this month. I’m sure my customers would be thrilled if I did, but I need a break. But like always, I’m two days into my break and already wondering what type of dolls I should make next. I really do love making them. It just stresses me out to not have time for everything else I want to do.
I spent most of Tuesday working and then I did some whirlwind errand running in the afternoon. Grandma picked up the boys after chess club and I met Greg at the theater to watch Knives Out. I wish we could have had time to eat something too, but it was still a nice little date night at the movies. I’m not sure why, but I always want date nights in December more than any other month of the year. Hopefully we can have a real one at some point in the next few weeks.
I worked all day Wednesday and then had a coffee creamer comparison test. I’m still trying to find a good alternative to my favorite Italian Sweet Cream coffee creamer. I’ve tried just milk or half and half, the most logical swaps, but milk is so blah and I HATED the half and half taste. I had hazelnut almond milk creamer at the conference I went to with their free coffee and didn’t really like it either. So on Wednesday I tried macadamia fudge creamer, which was like a thick chocolatey substance, vanilla oatmilk, and French vanilla almond/coconut milk. They were all OKAY, but also all without sweetener, so not great. I finally bought some coconut sugar the other day, so I want to mix that in with the alternative creamers, but haven’t had a chance yet. I also picked up a “toffee tidings” almond milk creamer WITH sugar in it – but not so much other crappy stuff, so I’m hoping maybe that will be okay. I really wish I could just like black coffee! Maybe I can wean myself down to it. I’ve only been a coffee drinker for two years, so I’m still working on the acquired taste.
I kept my focus and continued to work hard all day Thursday until I FINISHED all the ornament sized pre-order dolls I sold on Black Friday! I honestly thought it would take me until at least Monday to complete them, so getting them done by Thursday afternoon was really exciting. I wouldn’t want to do pre-orders regularly, but it was a really convenient way to make money quickly AND make my customers very happy. This might need to be my new Black Friday tradition.
Yesterday was St. Nick’s Day! Since I was up early as always, BUT didn’t have work to do, I decided to make gluten free gingerbread for a breakfast treat. I’m actually not very fond of anything ginger/molasses flavored, but this was really good! It seemed a little labor intensive with so many ingredients, but it was nice to have a tasty warm breakfast ready for everyone when they woke up.
St. Nick brought us all some gifts. We each got a book (I got two!), the boys got mini rocket kits, the guys all got a condiment, Greg got tea, and I got a holiday coffee sampler. Nothing terribly exciting, but I at least thought it was nice, even if I was really just gifting to myself (lol). Shepard was mad that he didn’t get an iphone… He’s in for a lot of disappointment and feelings hurting this Christmas if he expects everything he opens to be an iphone. He was, however, quite excited about his bottle of bbq sauce.
I SHOULD have spent my Friday cleaning up and prepping for my party, but instead I ran to Madison to check on my favorite stores and put together little Christmas gift bags for all of my friends. That took my whole day, but it was totally worth it to make everyone feel appreciated AND knock them all off my present list so early in the month! I still had some time to spare before setting up my giant cheese tray.
The party was great! It felt a little more low key this year, but it was very nice. We all ate a lot of cheese, had good conversation, and enjoyed the favorite things gift exchange. I love this annual celebration with my friends! I continue to be so thankful for the women in my life who show up and make the effort to stay connected, even when life is crazy.
And that brings us to today. I was determined to have a day without putting any pressure on myself to DO THINGS. My only requirement was going on a treadmill walk because I haven’t been very consistent this week. I spent too much time on my computer, like always. Still determined to get my Christmas shopping done. I’m SO close. After lunch (more cheese) I went up to read and ended up sleeping for two and a half hours!! I probably could have slept more, but somebody started running up and down the stairs over and over for some unknown reason. I was really excited to come down and see that I got a surprise package from a Christmas book swap I signed up for. I’ve actually done four swaps in the last few weeks, but only received one and a half of them back so far. The first one a few weeks ago had some fun unicorn socks and tea – she told me she had books to send, but I still haven’t gotten any. It’s funny that in two BOOK exchanges, I haven’t actually gotten any books yet. Give me the books, people! I want ALL THE BOOKS. But today’s present was awesome! It was so spot on and perfect just for me, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even know me! It just feels so good when someone actually gets me. The group for this exchange partner is called “Sharks of Awesome” (for Penny Reid fans), which is the reason for the shark pencil sharpener – with a rainbow pencil! Anyway, it’s not been a very happy day around the house, so this really cheered me up.
Overall it’s been a pretty stressful week, but the worst is behind me! I’m really excited to spend the rest of the month just focusing on getting ready for Christmas, relaxing, reading, and spending time with family!
