{behind the scenes} no. 4

{the holiday etsy shop sale addition} 

it’s been a while since i’ve posted a {behind the scenes} post, so i thought i’d share what things have looked like here in our house during these very busy past couple of weeks. 

warning- this is real talk people, an enlightening look into my not-so-glamorus-self-employed/mom-of an-adorably-strong-willed-toddler life. and there’s blood involved, just so you know. 

- i’m notoriously running late (all my friends and family reading this are totally nodding along here... ) so as i rushed out the door with my first batch of my etsy orders to mail, i knew i had exactly 8 minutes to get to the post office before it closed and it was a 7 minute drive. as i franically zipped up my boots, hopping on one foot out the door, ada picked up on my nutty energy and came to the conclusion that i was going farther away than just the post office. so, as i was about to close the door, she jumped up to give me a "BIG hug”, only in doing so, she bumped right into my nose (hard) with her 4 year-old sized head. ouch. cue one doozy of a bloody nose (me). poor ada looked like she might faint so i whisked her off to dada as i dripped blood through the kitchen (tmi, i know)... then the two of them sloppily plopped down on the couch as i ran off to get the tissues. believe it or not, she (somehow?!) accidently kicked him in the face as they plopped down and he got a bloody nose too! seriously, i can’t make this stuff up.  i thought maybe we should have played the lottery that day or something.  we didn’t, and, as you may have guessed, i didn’t make it to the post office either.  

- when we both recovered from the strange incident of the simultaneous bloody noses, i decided, in an effort to keep things on schedule, to go out and use the post office’s “do it yourself” mailing machine, or whatever that thing is called. you see, i don’t love it, but i can use that machine pretty fast, as in, i can probably mail 6 packages in the same amount time that it took the adorable little elderly man in front of me to mail his 1.  anyway, let’s just say i was trying to be really nice and i let a few folks go in front of me in the line since, as one woman whined to me, "i just have one thing and you have, (looking sadly at my basket) well, a lot”... ahem. well, go ahead then, i said kindly (‘cause no one like a whinner watching over your shoulder)  and that was it, i ended up letting, not one but MANY people go ahead of me... the problem was NO ONE knew how to use this machine so i ended up assisting every one of the cranksters in an effort to keep things running.  geeze.  needless to say i didn’t get much mailed that day either.   

- to complicate things even further-  i then managed to slice my thumb pretty badly with my Xacto knife early on in my packaging, so i spent a whole lot of time with sticky hello kitty band-aids getting stuck to everything as i tried not to bleed on the calendars and notes i was adding to the packages. ouch. oh, and more blood, geeze. 

- i also found myself drinking far too much coffee, not enough water and at a low point when i was very hungry because i forgot to eat lunch, i ate “lunch” directly out of the pot on the stove.  to make matters worse it was ada’s bunny pastas and they were old and cold.  delicious. oh, and then there were a few nights of popcorn for dinner. no big deal. 

- then yesterday came, the last of the packages were finally shipped out, (hooray!) and i found myself standing and staring, yup, just staring into space in the salad dressing aisle at the co-op. there i was holding my empty basket, knowing that there was some very important reason i had gone to the store in the first place, but for the life of me i couldn’t figure out what it was. it certainly wasn’t salad dressing, but there i stood until i snapped out of it and remembered it was oatmeal. that’s when i knew it was time to catch up on my sleep. 

so there you have it. a real (and bloody) glimpse into my glamourous life. when people ask “how do you do it all?”, well, now you know. ; ) 

all that being said, i’m SO incredibly thankful for all of the support of my art and work lately.  the calendars and kits have been restocked and i continue to add posters and prints too. thank you all for your orders, i hope my art will make some folks happy this holiday season and beyond.  

as for the weekend, my not-so-trusty assistant and i are going to take some time off. all i have on the books is a holiday party, some christmas-ifying of our house and a mug or two of hot chocolate.  i hope you have a nice weekend planned too!  xo *s