New Year Resolutions

I'm not nearly as organized as I would like to be
and I'm not one that actually makes New Year Resolutions.
But...

after the mess I found myself in
last month...
I do have ONE resolution that I have to make...
to 'plan ahead' and be much more
prepared during this next
Holiday Season.

I waited...almost too late...to order the calendars
and I only Hope they all made it by Christmas.
The publisher was supposed to print and ship within a 3 to 5 day
window...
which would have been plenty of time..
it took almost 10 days...
YIKES!!

Then...I had the calendars shipped to me to reship...
another YIKES!!

I was soooo stressed out over these calendars
that it threw me 'off my game'
and other orders ended up going out late.

Suffice it to say...it all had a domino affect...
shipping supplies weren't coming in as timely as they normally do...
even our printing supplies became scarce and hard to find...
the bails for our scrabble tile pendants
were 'crap'..
(I'm not sure why, since we got
them from our usual supplier and had not had any problems
before)
so we had to drive all over town trying to find bails
that would 'do'...there were no bails in town
so we ended up having to fashion our own.

We had all of this to do...
and I hadn't even done ANYTHING for gifts
for anyone.

So I had to pause long enough to make
something for each of the 18 family members
who would be here on Christmas Eve!
They all got journals or planners
with original art covers...
even the youngest ones
loved their little notebooks..
with the cutest little characters on the covers!

If I don't do anything different this year...
I resolve not to run into this same mess during the next
Holiday Season.

I'm already working at getting my own printer...
I think even before I get a computer...
so that I don't have to pile my work on Jaime
during a time that is sooo busy for her.
And I'll begin to stockpile the art paper and inks in October.

I've switched to Aanraku bails for my pendants...
and I'll be stockpiling those too!

Hopefully I'll learn from this Holiday Season
what NOT to do during the Next one!