Party Dilemmas 2 and NaNoWriMo

My daughter's party is fast approaching. I have survived her actual birthday (which was yesterday), cakes were baked, presents were opened and oodles of fun was had by all, I think. So last night I took on the dreaded task of making up the party bags. I feel that I must apologise in advance to all parents for the amount of sweets in said bags. It is not my fault! I have so many sweets left over from Halloween I need to get rid of them before I eat them all! So party bags were the answer. I never thought I would ever, ever say this, but I AM SICK OF HARIBOS!

Update - Party bags nearly completed apart from the obligatory crappy plastic toys that I will buy today.

I thought I should check I had everything else. A week or so ago I ordered some stuff from 'Party Pieces', a mail/internet company which sells all things party. Now, I am making pink sparkly cupcakes for my daughter this year, as they are easier and it saves having to cut a cake up. Party pieces had cellophane bags, a pack of 20 for just over one pound. Bargain, I will take a pack. I ordered them, along with some party bags, cupcake cases (pink and spotty), and a cardboard (flat packed) cupcake stand. All relatively small items, which pack flat for ease of transportation.

Or so I thought. A few days later my 'Party Pieces' package arrived. Imagine my excitement when I saw the box. It was huge! You could have fitted a microwave in it, it was that big, ginormous in fact. I was convinced they must have sent me an exciting free gift, so I ripped off the tape and delved into the box. I was disappointed. There was no exciting free gift, just my rather small, flat (ish) order at the bottom of copious amounts of totally unnecessary packaging.

In these modern times of 'reduce, reuse and recycle' I was astonished at the amount of packaging used to distribute my items. Take note 'Party Pieces'. It's just not necessary.

My gripe with 'Party Pieces' hasn't ended. I decided to count the cupcake bags. They came in a neat and tidy roll, which looked thick enough to contain 20 bags, as per the advertisement. They didn't. They had sent me 10! 10 I ask you, what good are they to me. I have sent a strongly worded email and unless they are going to send bags by motorbike courier, direct to the venue by 10 o'clock, tomorrow, I am scuppered! Have you ever tried to send cupcakes home with 6 year olds wrapped in paper napkins? No, me neither!

I am quite impressed with myself. This week, I have managed to conquer the common cold, bake furiously for children's parties, organise said party, wrap presents and (more importantly) keep up with NaNo.

A few people have asked me why I am doing it? I wasn't sure, was my standard response. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But now I have started, I have had time to think about Why? Well, I actually like deadlines. Mad I know, but I work better under pressure. I need to know what, when, how, why and whom, and I love the satisfaction of seeing the word count at the end of the day. I am the Queen of procrastination (although I am sure many of you will claim my title), but if I have a deadline, I fly!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I can function past 7 o'clock!