Happy New Year!
This year has been off to a pretty dismal start, honestly, so much that I’m splitting this into two posts - you can see my more personal perspective on the current state of things in this other post. Here though, I want to share my values and goals for this tiny business. It’s a new year, afterall, and finding my center is more important now than ever.
Quiet progress
With all the things I try to juggle in my current life and all the noise from current events, I continue to re-center myself on things that matter to me the most. This business started because I want to create, not so much because I want to make money (that part is of course, important as well) I want to continue returning to that - to create, to make things that are meaningful to me and spark interest, meaning, nostalgia and conversation with others as well. I enjoyed reading this article about the qualities of the year of the snake, from which I quote, “A great deal of quiet progress can be made in 2025 with the help of this planetary energy. Honour this transformative beginning every day with positive thoughts.” I’ll continue going at my pace of posting on socials and doing all the business-y things as it fits into my life, but I think it will be in a quiet manner.
Intention
That is, to treat every little decision - whether it’s what piece of stationery I want to create, who I choose to interact with, what I decide to post on IG or elsewhere - with intention. Who does this decision serve? Does this fulfill my need of “creativity first, business second” mindset? Is this a piece that connects with others?
On the boring side, I do want to spend a bit of time figuring out my own system a bit. I’ve always been a very organized person. While there’s a lot of spontaneity with what I do here, now that the business has grown a smidge, I do want to clean up my space a little, make sure I have enough supplies, count my inventory, etc. It helps keep my head straight. Proudly, I've already started the year off by fixing a platen issue on Gertie, my letterpress, which I've avoided since I first bought her - many many thanks to Stephen for that!
On the more exciting side, I will definitely continue to create some new cards and pins, but the larger “dream goals” include:
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Getting into risograph printing: an eco-friendly way of printing that is fun and hopefully less of a headache with some letterpress issues I deal with. I hope it allows me to do some larger prints.
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Get into a new product category - won’t say what that is yet, since I’m not totally there, something I hope will be practical for people
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More collaborations - working and connecting with people remains one of the most important values for me. Collaborating also allows me to continue pushing creativity.
If there’s anything you would like to see from me, I’m all ears! I keep a list of all the ideas anyone’s given me, which may come to fruition this year or sometime later in the future.