November, November, Where Did You Go?

It occurred to me today, while I was in a flurry of assembling and painting ornaments (36 of them, to be exact) that this month is nearly over and I've barely registered that it was even here.

Typically, November is one of my favorite months of the year. It is a time to meditate upon my Samhain resolution, reflect on and maybe even pamper myself, and just catch my breath before the next big holiday rush arrives, heralded in by the great feasting of Thanksgiving. This year however, I have barely stopped to admire the pumpkin colored leaves that are still on the trees, an oddity that I've not seen before since back home the leaves would all be on the ground and we'd have had our first snow by now. This November has been uncannily hectic.

There was the issue of my eye which is still persisting. My doctor gave me the o.k to begin to wean off the medications a week ago and tonight it is sore and burning so tomorrow morning I make an appointment to go back. But, that's current and the hectic two weeks I've had were caused earlier in the month when my eye was still sore. I was on the fence about doing the craft show I was invited to but when my eye began to clear up I went ahead and sent in my registration. I realized after I had dropped the envelope in the mail that I had a hair less than two weeks to prepare.

I've been a flurry of activity as I've been making ornaments and wee bottle necklaces, having prints made, painting new things and sculpting fairy houses. Packaging and display has been a creative endeavor all its own as expedited shipping costs and my budget were in disagreement and Joe has been a huge help with this. When I pondered building display stands from a piece of plywood, he made them. Even when I came up with the ludicrous idea to make every single box for all of the small items from card stock he sat down for a few hours and helped me measure, cut, fold and secure all 50+ boxes. If it weren't for him and a good bit of coffee, I'd be nowhere near finished with preparations.

Since this is my first show and I'm cutting it a bit close with finishing everything up (it's this Saturday!) I've had very little time to write or visit everyone. Gods willing, I'll get everything done with time to spare to share some in progress and preparation shots before the big day. If not I'll share them after the show and ,should I sell at least 3 things, a celebratory Midnight Margarita!

P.S. I just wanted to thank all of you for the comments on the previous post. It means a lot to me that you all take the time to read my less than cheerful ponderings and even more that you shared your thoughts and experiences with me. You've given me heart and things to think on; it's been much harder than I've let on to pick up and move this far from everything I've ever known and perhaps this down time is meant to be a useful growth period. Other old friends have been creeping into my dreams over the past few nights but they haven't caused any reveries or sadness upon waking, they've simply been friendly spectres of the night.

I've been seeing a lot of you working through the 30 Days of Truth blog posts. Where can I find the questions? What have your experiences been with it thus far? Are any of you doing it in a paper journal, rather than online? I sort of feel I may go that route, at least at first, since I tend to re-read things written down more often than I will things online.

P.P.S. Don't worry, I fully intend to take a few days to relax, read, take a hot bubble bath and focus on just me after the show. ;)