Here I am again, sat on a cramped train on my way back to London after a weekend ooop north.  I guess I should consider it training as, in pretty much exactly a week’s time, I shall be starting my annual epic Christmas journey to festivities in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Durham – with a hell of a lot more baggage.

Yes, the Christmas crush has started – and although it has been more than a little manic, I think I am winning.  Apart from a bit of something from Fortnum and Mason for my beau (bet that has got him thinking, he he) and a mad rush back to House of Fraser after some rather disappointing customer service from Yodel (summary: parcel left with neighbour who denied all knowledge of it, no customer service phone or email, and, to round off the saga, when I finally retrieved the package it was damaged and the mother in law’s gift smashed) I have my shopping under control and a week to get it all wrapped up in front of my festive fairy lights and lots of crappy Christmas telly - I’ve already watched my faves Love Actually and a Muppet Christmas Carol!  All my Christmas cards are written and posted to the correct addresses, and I managed to avoid a major faux pas by double checking the name of an old mate’s fella – and not addressing it to her horrible ex instead – eek!  I’ve also managed to survive my work do with minimal damage, impressing my manager with my figs wrapped in Parma ham and winning the hearts of my colleagues with homemade Christmas Bakewell tart.  The less about the following shots of tequila and karaoke the better...  
Even if hangovers and indigestion hit, I’ve had my highlights done and getting my barnet restyled on Friday too.  Teamed with my new sparkly top and deluxe reindeer antlers, there will be no stopping me when the celebrations start in earnest when I finish work on Thursday.  And, as if the Christmas countdown hasn’t been keeping me on my toes enough, I’ve been busy elsewhere too!  For starters... I’VE OPENED MY ETSY SHOP!  Hurrah!  Check me out at www.etsy.com/ship/ShellyBerryOriginal - and please tell me what you think.  I’ve already been told that I should be concentrating on my paintings and piccies rather than my crafts but would love to hear other opinions too.

 for telling me about them!  Unfortunately I have to admit I have been procrastinating a wee bit about another task on my to do list, and that is to start novel number two – DAN DAN DAAAA!  Actually, I did start writing it a long time ago but got distracted by what soon became novel number one, and I fully intended to be picking it up where I left it on this very train journey – but appear to not have it saved onto my trusty netbook but  have tucked away on my external hard drive back at home.  I just need to dig it out, dust it off and get typing... before 2013 rolls in at least :)

Well, that’s all for now folks... I guess it just leaves me to say

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Readers... I have a plan.  It isn’t particularly cunning, but it enables me to keep focused on what I want in life and where I want to be.  My plan is haphazardly divided into three parts; Plan Part A is to be a published novelist (which I rambled on about last time I blogged), Plan Part B is to pursue my other creative pursuits and Part C is to sort out the rest of my life.  Keeping them separate stops me getting too overwhelmed and, most of the time, they bumble along quite nicely without bothering each other.  But the other week my desire to buy a flat (a la Plan C) inspired my dream to create things for a living (see Plan B) – and escape the rat race.

You see, when I last looked into it, I discovered that I could just about afford to buy a flat in Walthamstow.  Having already explored it a month or two ago, I recently returned to have a look around the Lloyd Park area.  I was pleasantly surprised – the surrounding streets looked nice enough, the park itself had a lovely community feel and, to top it off, it was the home of the William Morris Gallery.

I admit that, unlike my mum, Mr Morris’s designs don’t really excite me, but what I love about him and his contemporaries was their creation of the Arts and Crafts Movement – the rejection of mass production in favour of carefully crafted wares made by skilled artisans.  It’s a concept I very much admire – and one that I feel is having a bit of a revival at the moment.  However, these days, your average person has more free time than the working class Victorian and many of us are embracing craft into our own lives.  

Whatever the reason, I will not be defeated!  I have already created accounts on both the aforementioned websites and shall be getting some of my stuff on line for people to buy asap.  So, if you need a little bit of something different to stuff your stockings with, watch this space... or, if you see something you like on the site, just drop me a line via my contact page and I’ll see what I can do!