World, Meet Hope. Hope, World.

I know you guys can tell: I've been dragging a bit lately. Nothing dire, just self-imposed busyness and stress and not allowing enough time for my batteries to recharge.

It's easy to be sad around the holidays. It's easy to fall behind, and get buried. It's easy to think you're responsible for the happiness of everyone around you.

Lemme say that one again.

It's easy to think you're responsible for the happiness of everyone around you.

Not just me, right?

::fist bump of solidarity::

Anyway, about a week ago I started noticing an odd burning on the left side of my forehead. The skin felt hot, like a mild sunburn, and there was the slightest pressure, but no redness or irritation. I figured it was a reaction to makeup at first, but after four days of annoyance I decided to google it.

Would you believe hot spots on your face are yet another symptom of anxiety? Egads, that's a new one for me.

So that, combined with the stomach aches and feelings of "AAAUUGH too much to do!!" - and of course the nightmares -  finally clued me in to the fact that I needed to, you know, CHILL.

Which is easier said than done, I know. But I'm trying. Saying no to fun things with friends is hard. Letting my posts here slow down a bit is hard. Taking supplements and the monster-slaying meds I know my body needs is hard. But I'm trying.

And through all my frazzle and tetchiness, through my erratic sobby times and my more-than-occasional refusals to get out of bed, John's been here, as always, shouldering what I can't carry.

Last week John started disappearing into the garage late at night. I figured he was escaping the general fallout zone of my latest stress-plosion, but he claimed he was having fun trying to make something. He does that sometimes. Once he saw an ornate wooden bowl at an art show, came home, and made a little replica of it in an afternoon. He likes just seeing if he can do it.

So I didn't think much of it, his nightly disappearances. I had plenty of other things to think about.

Then yesterday morning, John gave me this:

Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Ornaments: Free Papercraft!

Do you have room on your tree for one more ornament? Because lookie:

A little Bertie Bott's box!

This is roughly half the size of the real candy box, and - I'm proud to say - much easier to make. Yep, this is a completely different template, since the full-size boxes are a HUGE pain in the keister. That top peak never wants to sit right or stay flush, and even the ones in Universal's display windows are covered with unsightly Scotch tape to hold them down. (Which does make me feel better, but still.)

After I nearly lost my mind wrestling with the full size boxes, John and I set out to make an easier template; one that requires only one seam on top instead of four, so the peak is nice and sharp.

 We started with Little Falling Star's free box art, and after much tweaking and Frankensteining and practice runs, we finally got it! Then we added photos of jelly beans to all the windows, so you can skip the tedious cutting-out-windows-and-filling-with-candy step.

I won't keep you in suspense; here's our finished template:

Right-click and hit "save" to download, then print at 100% size on satin photo paper. 

This is still slightly tricky to put together, though, so let me walk you through it: