Wednesday, October 1, 2014

It's back...

Just when you thought it was safe to carry on with your crafting... you turn the page on the calender and realise... it's back... time to begin the countdown to my Christmas Craft Challenge.
Today is the 1st of October. That means here in New Zealand we are one month into Spring, it's 30 days until Halloween (not that we really celebrate it here), I've been back in the country two weeks and it's two months until the 1st of December which is officially the start of my Christmas Craft Challenge.
The 1st of October is the day I post my official reminder for the kick off of the Christmas Craft Challenge in exactly two months.
By now I have usually forgotten all about last year's stress and the self-imposed pressure I put myself through so I once again blindly commit myself to doing it all again. 
This year will be the 6th year in a row that I have been doing this. When I first started there were very few crafters doing this sort of thing... well at least few who were blogging about it. Last year they were everywhere. There were so many people blogging, photographing and posting their Christmas creations that it close to being overwhelming.
So why do I put myself through this? We all participate in crafting challenges, especially at Christmas, for many reasons... some more practical than others - boost sales, get your name our there to build demand for your crafting or design services or for design team exposure. Some may be hidden behind a guilt about having committed to doing "X" amount of crafting during the year and then discovering in October/November that you've fallen short on meeting your targets. For those in the Northern Hemisphere it may be related to heading into the cold, miserable Winter months, when indoor pursuits are all you can do unless you don't mind standing around freezing, knee deep in snow waiting for the next chair lift. And if like me you don't fit into any of the above... then just because.
Back to this year's Christmas Craft Challenge...
Well last year's went horribly wrong, I don't mind admitting it. I was working full-time from the start of November having been unemployed for some time, and I was sick as well (no time off when you are contracting)... so my Christmas Craft Challenge turned into a New Year's Craft Challenge for the most part.
I'd like to think I learnt something from last year, so this year I'm not going to commit myself to one craft project a day as Christmas is busy and stressful enough at times without adding pressure to myself for no particular reason. Instead I am happy to commit myself to a minimum of one blog post a week for the four week period. Anything over and above that is a bonus. Each blog post will cover a minimum of two craft projects.
This is doable, without killing me, killing Christmas for me or for me ending up wanting to kill my family for adding to my stress.
Play along at home as well or just pop by to look at what I have created. If you are playing a long at home and will be sharing your own projects on the net somewhere, be sure to leave me a comment to let me know where so I can check you out (well your crafting) and give you a plug on my blog.