Eye of the retail storm

It feels way later than it is.

It's that time of year again, sun goes down at about 4:30 and so I start burning the midnight oil mighty early.

I have been working full-out on my card business for several weeks now (and not blogging, in case you haven't noticed)...wholesale orders are up, and my website is once again paying for itself. Trips to the post office almost every day. This evening I finally finished the worst of the planning and packing for my biggest craft show of the year, the Plowshares Craftsfair in Syracuse, and now I am kicking back with a long hot bath and a well-deserved wee sip o' wine in front of the woodstove. Kind of an eye-of-the-storm moment. Read about Plowshares here, and come on up...loads of excellent artists and interesting treats for your Christmas stockings. This lion and lamb image seemed appropriate to talking about a fair put on by the Syracuse Peace Council. Oh hey, and it's available as a card, of course!

The Holiday Spirit Store is picking up...that's the one in downtown Ithaca. Working lots of shifts there and trying to encourage people to shop locally and support their favorite artists who needed pricey new brakes on their cars this week.

I had my first Etsy sale! A calendar to someone in Oregon. Excellent.

Farmers' Market continues on, we are at our outdoor location until December 19th (when we host the International Rutabaga Curling Championship). For me, that means two chilly markets on the 12th and 19th, and then I can hang it up for a while.

In other breaking news, the new chicken of indeterminate gender proclaimed his rooster-ness today with a series of unmistakable cock-a-doodle-dooooos. I've been wondering about that chicken, and now we know...