My Month in Numbers 2011: October

Hi, hi, hi.

You might not believe this but ... tomorrow signals the end of yet another month.  It's a bit scary really [and I don't just mean because of Halloween!] and the very minute I find out how to stop these days flying by in a blur ... I'll let you know.

Until then, here's my October 2011 in numbers:

2.45 metres = the length of the sheet of acrylic I currently have on my dining room floor:

The reason being?

You know how people have tried to define what "Love" is? Such as "Love is never having to say you're sorry"? Well, allow me to add my own definition ...

• Love is  ...  rescuing a sheet of acrylic discarded in a skip and bringing it home in your van because you know that your good lady is suffering from this:

• Because Love is ... having enough acrylic in the house to make 11 brand new [flat - not curved and cracked] sets of cutting plates for a Big Shot die-cutter!

4 months = the number of months - in advance - my brain has been tricked into believing it is after sending in my Valentine's Day projects to Creativity Magazine!

Valentine's Day!! My brain sees Halloween + Christmas and responds with: "Please ... they're so last year".

1 = the number of day's notice I had that we were to have a small house guest. Which I wouldn't normally mind about but it coincided with the time I had to work on 16 things for my commission.

Fortunately our niece is artistically minded too and was happy to sit and craft along with me while  I worked: 

 Tip to all children aspiring to get on a crafter's good side: you can't go wrong with the conversation opener she used on me: 

"Auntie Julie, do you do your art every day?"

There was no room there for the usual silly modesty: "Art?' Who? me? Is this art? This isn't art it's just pushing paper around." A simple, "Yes, most days" seemed the best reply. Especially if she wants to grow up and do it every day too. Which she very well might ...

While she sat with me she produced 14 cards, 2 gift boxes and 1 Halloween bunting banner with very little help from me [and a lot of help from my DOCrafts supplies, maybe she's a Creativity contributor of the future!]: 

2 = the number of submissions of interest I ... err ... submitted!

1 = the number of rejections I took on the chin. [Still waiting to hear about the 2nd].

1 = the number of layouts made following that rejection. [The Get Ahead one from this post last week].

2 = the number of lovely, surprising and unconnected offers I had in the days immediately following  blogging that layout.

As that post had been about not waiting for others to offer you something, it was very interesting to see the offers coming in after I'd let the idea go. I am quite partial to a bit karmic balancing!

Speaking of which ...

2 = the number of special guest bloggers I invited to add to my Purple Phase series. Both Sian Fair and Lara Watson joined the ranks in the mission to prove purple is usable in scrapbooking!

And ...

2 = also the number of times I got to be someone else's special guest. Shimelle Laine invited me to her Pretty Paper Party and then Erika Senneff, of Oops I craft My Pants, asked me to share my Tips For the Twitter-Curious with her blog readers.

Not for nothing is 'What goes around comes around' one of my [and The Carousel Zebra's] favourite ideas!

All, lots, almost as much as my body weight = the amount of paper and ephemera I decided to sort through one afternoon.

On a whim.

A whim which, hours later, led to me and our dining room looking a little worse for wear.

Like this:

26 = the number of packets of Plundered Pages, my new mixed vintage paper kits, I've made up so far ... from all that paper I sorted through:

[Edited to add: I've begun gradually adding them to my etsy shop now.]

1 = the number of items I included in one of the themed packs which I already went to look for to add to a layout of my own ... [an old collectors card with a bat on it] until I realised it was now sealed up inside a themed pack! 

Hopefully this is a good sign ... that if I want to use the kits ... then maybe someone else will too! No doubt I'll update you in next month's numbers!

5 = the number of people who blogged their own Month in Numbers posts - for September - who I added links to at the bottom of my September post. 3 of which were very welcome 1st-timers.

I'll be doing the same again with this post - so just let me know if you blogged yours and I'll edit this post to add you in.

• Louise from 'Boys Bugs & Beautiful Buttons' blogged a great twist on the idea by listing the numbers of photographs she took of various occasions during October. It's a great idea which you can read here.
• Melissa from 'Remember to Breathe' joined in with her numbers for the first time here after hearing about the idea from Sian.
• Cate of 'Life Behind the Purpe Door' was another first-timer who joined in, catch up with her statistics here.
• A warm welcome back to Clair of 'The Crafty Alchemist' - my Month in Numbers stalwart - who after playing along all year has caught up on 2 month's worth of numbers in this post as illness stopped her totalling-up her September statistics.
• Nathalie from 'An Ounce of Creativity' has joined in with some Halloween + Pinterest inspired numbers in this post. 
• Kate from 'Nanna Kate' joined in once again with some foodie statistics here.
• Cate from 'World Elsewhere' returned to blogging her month in numbers here after a few months break [which she counted, obviously!] and October had a special significance for her ... which needed cake + party.
• Sian of 'From High in the Sky' joined in once again with a great layout to document her numbers this time round here.
• Fiona of 'Staring at the Sea' found me through Sian and blogged her numbers for the first time here.
• Then after seeing Fiona's post ... Julia from 'Scraps of Life + Pieces of Paper' joined in for the first time too here.
• Ginger, of 'Ginger's Life of Spice' joined in with hers here which features the best sighting of an acrobat you'll see all week! ;-)
• Melissa, of 'Remember to Breathe', joined in once agan here.

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So those are my October statistics and as it's almost lunchtime I won't mention the smells which came from 1 bottle of milk being spilled in James's van nor the 1 noxious chicken he unpackaged and swiftly returned to the supermarket this morning.

Here's to a sweetly scented November. For all of us.

Julie :-)