2014: An Illustrated Wrap-Up
I got back to Austin last night after an extended holiday trip to Portland to see family and start some wedding planning (venue booked, officiant booked, wedding coordinator booked, dress bought - YEAH, I AM A MACHINE) and have developed a whole new appreciation for creatives who live near, or have, families.
How do you ever get anything of your own done!?
Curling up to do the NY Times Crossword puzzle in Christmas jammies with mama or going downtown for Spanish coffees or spending time with your grandparents or watching the Blazer game was so much more enticing than sneaking off to do a little bit of work (made even more difficult by the fact that I left my laptop charger in Austin). At times when we shake our heads and wonder why we moved to Texas, I am learning to look at all the work I did this past year and realize that it probably wouldn't have gotten done had we not moved somewhere kind of isolating.
Except we're starting to make friends here, too, so I guess 2015 is the year where we learn to pursue passionate work we love while balancing it with social/family obligations - otherwise we're going to end up in rural Pennsylvania or the Alaskan wilderness to carve out some peace and quiet.
The end of 2014 was full of fun projects I didn't feel I could share until the holidays came to a close as so many of them were gifts - a smattering of them are below and a couple variations will be available in my online shop, now.
Thank you, each of you, for your encouragement, support, interest, constructive suggestions, and love this past year. I absolutely could not have done it (or would have starved/begged M. to pay all the rent) without you and your generosity.
2015 will be about taking all the experience and knowledge I stumbled across last year and deliberately crafting it into new projects and expanding my skillset to create better, tighter, prettier work for us all to enjoy.