Considering I drew my outfit before Christmas, you’d think I’d have gotten this post up sooner! I’m still deciding how/if to do these updates this year – if you want me to continue, go enter the giveaway and tell me so!
What I did in December
Loads of Christmas and market prep, had an amazing day at the Holiday Hullabaloo, decorated a tiny tree, sold loads of diaries, had a nice quiet Christmas. I also added a new snowy banner to my blog – have you spotted it yet?
Things I bought for myself
A tiny Christmas tree, a bunny lamp, a dress with birds on it, a bone from Tado, some new records, loads of zines. My first piece of Le Creuset cookware (and now I want more – it’s awesome stuff!) Oh, and a trip to Boat of Garten, to tie in with my visit up North in the next couple of months.
Reading, Watching, Playing
If you want to read about my favourite records, books, zines and events of 2001, you can check out my end of year lists at diskant. I also finally started reviewing stuff at I Like Zines.
Nothing To See Here by Anne Ward
I feel like we’ve been waiting years for this but it was worth the wait. The book version of Anne’s ace blog, this pocket-sized guidebook contains some of the oddest and most interesting places to visit in Scotland. Perfect for anyone who likes to get off the tourist trail and a refreshing change from all those ’10 Places everyone MUST visit’ type lists. The descriptions are all great and there’s loads of photos too. Get your copy here.
The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle by Sara Wheeler
Really interesting book about the people who live in the Arctic Circle. It’s easy to forget quite how many countries are partly in the Arctic but she visits them all and describes the lives of the inhabitants, visitors and scientific communities. Bit of a coincidence that I ended up reading this around the same time as Frozen Planet was on the BBC – the last couple of episodes cover some of the same ground. The book is way more in depth though and includes lots of personal anecdotes as well as discussion on climate change, and some of the history of Arctic exploration. I feel like I learnt a lot, even if only that ‘lowly member of Polar expedition team’ is bottom of my career plans since it pretty much always involves frostbite, living in a cave for 2 years and having to eat your boots.
Animal Crossing
I always end up picking up Animal Crossing again in the winter – not only is the snow really pretty, but it’s a nice way of wasting whatever time you have. I’ll probably stop again once work gets back up to speed but it’s been fun hanging out with my animal friends again. I would like to pay off the last of my mortgage to Tom Nook though – only 300,000 bells to go, you extortionist! Also really makes me want a new Animal Crossing game. Please tell me there’s one on the cards Nintendo.
The Adventures of Tintin
I picked up this collection of the animated series super-cheap in Fopp and it still holds up pretty well. Shame the DVDs are so cheaply made they didn’t even bother joining up the 2 part episodes so you get titles and a recap after 15 minutes. They’ve done a good job of cutting down the stories to fit in half an hour, though some of the accents are lamentable. Also, I’d forgotten that story where they get abducted by aliens – what the hell was that all about? I’m guessing that’s not on the list for a movie remake.
iPhone app of the month
Etsy (Free!)
I am well impressed with this app. Not only can I relist sold items and answer emails anywhere, but it actually notifies me every time I sell something, unlike the sadly rubbish Shopify app which would tell me 5 days later. Haven’t bought anything with it yet but the buyer part looks really good too.
New Product Round-up
– Fabric Fat Quarters
– What I Wore – free zine
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 31
Items sold on Etsy: 30
Items sold on Folksy: 23
Items sold on DaWanda: 38
Pretty quiet December, I have to say. Sold a lot more pricier items this year though so maybe it all evens out. I need to update my annual sales spreadsheet and see!
