Deadline O'Clock

What time is it? It's deadline o'clock!

Well, almost. I've got a deadline tomorrow which involves these cheerful colours.

The past few days have been super busy. I've been doing lots of crafty, deadline-related things: drawing, cutting, sticking, sewing, painting...  plus buying supplies, taking photos, writing notes, etc.

I've also had a couple of Nice Days Out (planned before I knew about the deadline), meeting up with Charlotte of Displacement Activity, Alex of Hydrangea Girl and Maria of Dinki Dots, who are all lovely. 

It's always great to meet up with other makers and bloggers, there's always so much interesting stuff to talk about - you know, all that stuff us makers and bloggers find interesting but which weirdly seems to make "normal" peoples eyes glaze over when you try and talk to them about it! I'll blog about what we got up to sometime soon and I'll also be blogging about a little maker / blogger meet-up I'm planning (exciting!).  

First up: gotta meet this deadline...

Catching Up

The past couple of months have been super hectic, but in a good way!

I've had a string of deadlines for different projects, one after another, which has been a tad stressful at times but fun too. I can't wait to share the results with you when they're (eventually) all published!

I've squeezed in some Nice Days Out into my busy schedule, which at times has felt a little foolish but was totally worth it. Deadline-heavy months like these are the sort of times in which I used to say "oh, I'm much too busy for a day off!" and just work and work and work until everything was finished. But actually these are exactly the sort of times when I need a proper day off - either a proper sanity-saving break from work or a delightful post-deadline treat before launching into the next project. It's been really wonderful to get out of the office for a bit, to give my brain a rest and stretch my legs instead.

I've also been on a (to me) quite astonishing two trips in as many months. I went to rainy Manchester last month (my first holiday in years and my first ever on my own, which proved rather fun) and to sunny Seville this month (my first non-UK holiday since I was about 15! Which was a while ago!!). These trips were not fantastically well timed with all those deadlines inbetween, and I am now feeling slightly broke, but never mind!

So, this week I will be...

... catching up on all those tasks that have built up while I've been rushing around being busy: tidying my studio, doing little bits of admin, replying to blog comments, doing some laundry, etc
... finally scheduling some making days to work on some slightly neglected personal projects
... working on my flower-themed tutorial for May's link-up (I can't believe May has come around so quickly!)
... and editing lots of holiday snaps so I can blog about both my trips sometime soon :)

Creative Chaos

Crikey, the past few days have been hectic.My working day finished at 2am last night!

Okay, so I was sitting up watching DVDs and doing lots of sewing which isn't quite as bad as sitting at the laptop until the wee small hours but still, ugh. I will definitely be getting to bed earlier tonight.

I'm also going to be tidying up my workspace as it currently looks a little... chaotic.

My desk:

My studio:

The sofa:

The living room floor:

Tick, Tick, Tick

Talking of deadlines... wanna see my to do list?

You know you're busy when your to do list isn't actually a list but a two page colour-coded chart :)

I'm getting lots of things ticked off (hurrah!) but there's still lots to do. Wish me luck!

Deadlines, and Catching Up

I've had a whole load of different deadlines recently, which is always a bit tricky to juggle with running my shops but especially so at this time of year! While I've been focused on meeting them, I have to admit that I've fallen a little bit behind with a few day-to-day things.

My studio is a huge mess with crafty chaos covering every available surface. I've fallen way behind with my sky blanket squares. I've had to borrow some socks from my mother because I'm so behind on laundry that I've run out of clean pairs. And I am weeks behind with responding to comments here on my blog - sorry folks!

Now my 2012 deadlines have all been met (hurrah!) I'm looking forward to catching up with all these things over the next week or so, just in time to put my feet up a bit over Christmas :)

P.S. Because it feels weird to have a blog post without a photo, here's a quick snap of a corner of my desk this morning. Mmm... lovely graph paper...