Or twenty-eleven, as I am finding it hard to call you. Which is annoying as 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit and I am a Rabbit so I am expecting exciting times ahead.
Whatever, it is time for some New Year resolutions, or goals or what have you.
Here are last years. I am pleased to say I did them all except for printing something new on my gocco (I did at least use it to print on different paper), doing a craft market in London (though I did try by applying for Bust but no go) and my Big 5 Projects. Clearly, I could lie about my Big 5 Projects and pretend they were stuff I did, but actually I only managed one – wrapping paper. The rest are still on my long-term to-do list in one form or another. But still, a successful year I think!
When I wrote those, my plans were to organise my shop and products to be easier to produce in volume with an aim to start doing trade fairs in 2011. While I made big leaps towards that, I’ve decided it’s not what I want to concentrate on this year. I’ll still be working towards that as a goal for future years but this year is a bit more personal and more about projects close to my heart, with the opportunity to build more passive income (eg. things like Spoonflower and Zazzle where they do all the work and I get commission).
So, here are my goals for 2011.
Operation Clearout – two super-busy years have left me with a bombsite for a bedroom, full of stock, supplies, half-finished projects and loads of stuff I haven’t had time to get rid of. I won’t be living in this house forever though, and we plan to get new windows fitted this year so it’s got to go. This is my main aim of the year, along with…
Publishing projects – I failed my own zine challenge but I’m already busy on Japan stuff. I’ll definitely be updating my Tokyo Shopping Guide and I have another little zine I’d love to do this year. Not to mention all the half finished stuff I have for another Oddments or 3. I also have a couple of Big ideas – one written, one illustrated – but I’m not going to hurry them.
Design another Shopify theme – this was one of my Big 5 and I’m promoting it as it’s something I really want to do. Prettify is still fine but I’d like to do something more interesting and use all the tricks I’ve learned designing themes over the last year.
Continue doing monthly updates and What I Wore drawings – I’ve really enjoyed doing these every month and it’s been a good routine. I’ll probably change things up a bit and I’m not sure I really have enough clothes left that I haven’t drawn but we’ll see.
Get to grips with my graphics tablet – with all my plans, it would be easy for my graphics tablet to end up sitting on a shelf so I’m going to try to do something every month with it, to build up my skills.
Make stuff with my fabric – I ordered a ton of my fabric from Spoonflower recently and I want to start using it, hopefully with the help of my mum once she gets a sewing machine.
Leave more comments – I’ve noticed this year that I’m getting into a bad habit of enjoying things without responding so I’m going to make an effort to comment on blog posts and Flickr photos that make my day. I love it when people comment on my stuff so fair’s fair!
Oh, and Redesign my blog – I’ve actually done the design for it, but I’ll put it here so I do it soon :)
That’s it!
