Well I'm sorry, but if I'm drinking an Eggnog latte I'm going to have a festive outburst - even if it it still November

How soon is too soon...?

I was in trouble last night for having a festive outburst, and saying it's nearly Christmas - well we were drinking festive drinks from a coffee shop. What does anyone expect when I'm drinking Eggnog Latte...?

So how soon is too soon? Next week I'll be at my first Christmas fair of the season, and plan on wearing my Christmas hat! I know it's only November, but surely this is a big month for preparations for Christmas - if we all left everything until December we'd end up in a big Christmas meltdown. I've already had to pass up on several Christmas fairs because so many of them are clustered at the end of November and beginning of December, so a few early Christmas fairs are very welcome.

The Great Christmas Meltdown...

It's taken longer for me to get an attack of stressmas this year, but today it finally got me...

It was caused by having to go out to the supermarket, despite having a houseful of food, and why? Because tradition dictates that there are certain foods that we can't possibly do without over Christmas.

So I grabbed a small trolley - this is where I delude myself into thinking I am buying less, when in truth, with careful packing I seem to be able to fit just as much stuff in as I used to with a big trolley.

The whole experience was summed up when I smiled at a compete stranger, she smiled back and said "You look like I feel..." Then one of us said "tired" and the other said "fed-up" but I couldn't say who said which...

Lost in a Book at Christmas fairs

I had a lovely weekend at a Christmas fair in Haxby - everyone had turned out to socialise and do their Christmas shopping from local artists and crafters - I even came home with a tiny growing Christmas tree, which has taken up residence on my kitchen shelf to await some deccies...

So while everyone else is having a manic Monday, I'm having quite a chilled out one, plodding through the things that need to be done, before launching into preparations for my final weekend of Christmas fairs, in the Tithe Barn at Poppleton and Yorkshre Heart Vineyard.

There's some emergency knitting to be done as all my sheep and Basil's have gone to new homes - and if I have time I'll get another Christmas busy book made... and somewhere along the way I have Christmas cakes to make, and Christmas shopping to do...  arghh

...so how did that happen?

I started off lost in a book and rummaging for words, so how did that lead to rummaging in wool, and in danger pf getting lost under a pile of wool, fabrics and ingredients?

So - the wool started when I decided to merchandise my books, and make some characters from  the books to display on my table at book signings. The sheep were the first - people love sheep, and it's not just the children who want to take one home, I get adults who find them irresistible too...

 Then came  the cats - no not the real ones who became the stars of my latest book Outnumbered by Cats - and were the inspiration for Basil and The Flappy Thing came from - no, I mean the little knitted Basil's who are new to my stock this Christmas...

...and are now causing a wool crisis as I'm rapidly running out of ginger wool, and can't find any more.

Then there's fabrics for busy books

 - and as fast as I can use bits up, I seem to run out of something else...

As for the ingredients - well that's just a family Christmas sneaking up on me, and all the ingredients waiting in an overloaded pantry to be turned into a traditional Christmas.

So this afternoon I'm escaping the craziness and going to play with books - my stock of books is going down, last week I opened a new box of Doodle Mayhem, and this week I need to break open a new box of But I'm Not Sleepy - still my bestseller.

The real cats might just get a new box to play with...

Christmas Quiet / Busy Book

Getting festive: Christmas Quiet / Busy book, one only available in my Bookshop

 I made an xmas pudding - but not the sort you can eat. The pudding is a flap with a secret underneath...

 Lift the flap and find a mouse, with a cord for a tail.

 Meet Rudolf, with his shiny red button nose...

 Lots of textures here, with a felt snowman, Christmas tree - and ribbons - who can resist the feel of satin ribbon...?

 You can tie the ribbon in a bow... if you want to...

 Colour and pattern contrast. Christmas stocking and a pocket.

Back cover, with Lost in a Book label.

Confessions of a scatterbrain

I seem to be taking multitasking to a new level lately, and working at the kitchen table is quite possibly a harder place to work than hiding in the loft - jobs seem to call to me from the kitchen table - and so, finally I sit down to work with the background noise of the dishwasher, and where do I start...?

Well emails is the obvious place, after all I might have a big book order waiting there... but today I don't, I have a notification from facebook, so of course it'd be rude not to pop along and check my messages there..

I have a notification that several people like my status from yesterday - about me getting distracted by woolly hat patterns instead of getting on with some work. ...oops. I remind people about a Christmas shopping evening I'm attending and wander over to my blog. so "Hi" everyone who wondered over with me (Are you getting distracted by social media too?).

I don't like lists, I find them stressful - that all started many Christmases ago when I made a Christmas list, and it was very long... not the sort of thing that needs to be viewed all at once, but tucked discreetly into corners of my mind and tackled gradually.

And so without the aid of a list I throw myself at each day hoping to get to end of the things that absolutely have to get done that day, and decide I can forgive myself for leaving the rest for tomorrow...

Is it too early to be feeling festive?

So, after getting a little carried away, buying Christmas hats and booking Christmas fairs, and breaking into Christmas song (that was the step too far that I got told off for...) I thought I was being really early and organised when I went to stock up on dried fruit to start the Christmas baking - but apparently I wasn't as ahead of the crowd as I thought I was... some of the shelves were already bare and a locust style shopping seemed to be in full swing...

...and there was me thinking everywhere would be quiet on a rainy Monday in October. When everyone should be tucked up somewhere warm and dry with a good book - either reading one or writing one.