My month in numbers: March

March. By far the busiest month of 2010 so far for me and here's a number of reasons why ...

250 = the number of miles we travelled - by car, train, black cab and on foot - to see David Sedaris live at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.

If you're saying "Who's David Sedaris?" then you've obviously not spent enough time in my company! If you had I'd have either thrust one of his books under your nose before now or at least sent you a link to one of the many videos of him on YouTube.

However I do get this chance to tell you that he has a new series on Radio 4 starting this Friday!!! I'm giving you this link to it as my part of the bargain - your part of the bargain is to do your best to listen to it on Friday or 'Listen Again' via the Radio 4 iPlayer or the website etc! If you don't, I may have to reconsider our relationship ....

He's possibly my favourite living writer and humorist and thus he was on the list of people I would [literally] go the extra mile to see if they ever toured in the UK. Which he did. So the effort had to be made.

His show consisted of him reading from his upcoming book, from his previous essays and from his personal diaries. I could seriously sit here and try to recount the whole eveing for you but let's just say it was funny.

250 miles worth of funny in fact.

Oh and as if March 13 2010 wasn't already on track for the award for 'best day ever', he did a book signing after the show and we got to meet him. We got to meet him!

I keep telling myself that one day soon it'll sink in and I'll realise that I met David Sedaris ...

... and he signed my book ... and also doodled an "Abraham Lincoln trapped in a turtle's body' on it ... and he asked what our hotel was like ... and talked to James about carpets ... and he guessed from our accents that we were "from the far North" ... and he gave me some hair conditioner ...

125ml = the amount of Bliss Lemon + Sage conditioning rinse, taken from a New York hotel, that world renowned humorist David Sedaris handed me at the book signing:

He had a Tesco bag beneath the table from which he produced toiletries and complimentary items purloined from the world's hotels and gave them to his readers / appreciators / struck-dumb fan-girls [that was me]. It was great fun watching everyone's face as they walked away with a signed book and soem face wash!

When I get around to it, I'll make sure to let you know what washing your hair in a gift from your hero feels like. And I will use it ... because I'm worth it.

5.5 = the number of hours spent in the Victoria + Albert Museum on the same day we saw David Sedaris.

Even having spent that amount of time there we still didn't get to see everything. The place is a warren of amazingness and both its scale and its content is was somewhat overwhelming and caused us to take any opportunity to rest:

5 = the number ofcrafting friends I stayed with in a North Yorkshire cottage for a weekend full of crafts and laughs. [I know there's only 5 of us here but I haven't got a photo of all 6 of us ... give me a break, I'm doing my best.]

73 = the number of days late we ate a full Christmas lunch while in the cottage:

Or perhaps ...

294 = was actually the number of days we ate Christmas lunch early!

'Marchmas' was so much fun we've already planned our next weekend which, the last time we discussed things, is going to have a Trick or Treat theme ... despite being almost 2 weeks after Halloween.

44 = the number of haunting-yet-sweet little faces staring out at me from a shelf on the Art From The Heart stand at the Harrogate Papercrafts Extravaganza:

While I did wonder how much use I'd get from this oddly wonderful Stampotique stamp I decided that I really couldn't bear to go home without taking all those imploring faces with me!

OK then, one last one ...

17 = the number of months I've been a part of the very special Gauche Alchemy design team ... and I've now made the decision to move on. I'm still going to be a part of the GA family only in the role of an errant child who's forging her own path and dropping in on the folks every once in a while.

I made my final DT blog post yesterday in which I attempted to explain this layout:

As I hope this page proves .... I might have taken the girl out of Gauche, but there's no taking the gauche out of the girl! [If you get a chance - drop in on the GA blog this week - where there's all manner of festivities planned to welcome in the new DT].

That's it then. Enough with the numbers.

Cheerio March. I'm heading into the new month fortified by:

• a new sense of creative direction;
• the knowledge that I have fabulous friends who'll go to extreme festive lengths to have a great weekend away; and also
• the delightful thought that I have someone who'll travel the length of the country just so I get to see another man who makes me laugh.

But, perhaps most importantly, I'll be heading into April with silky soft, manageable, hair!

How about you?

Jx