Friday, December 31, 2021

2021 year in pictures

 the year in pictures

2017 year in pics
2018 year in pics

2019 year in pics

2020 year in pics

 

one color











 


















2021 Wrap Up

ANOTHER YEAR!  

Classic that I'm sitting here in the quiet studio, avoiding A L L work, gray outside, and typing this up.  new Years eve and I don't want to do ANYTHING!  Up late and coffee with Hex at Firehook (new go to) without emma because it was slightly drizzly.  Very rare to be without her.

 

It was a shitty year / December.  No way to sugar coat the end, when mom and dad both went into the hospital a few weeks apart, and mom died mid December.  Years and months and weeks and days of worry and boundary setting as things progressively got worse, and we continued to not do much different.  Nightly calls and Sunday visits, and that was it.  Ugh, it's all so shitty and will take lots of time to grieve.  Dad still doing ok.  

Weird that all the rituals stopped. No meal prep, no grocery shopping, no muffin making, no 8pm calls, no laying in bed watching HGTV.  It's all just over.  The house is a tomb.  I don't want to go.

 

Anyway, this all shadowed the year for sure, but '21 was rough anyway.  High hopes for Biden, and spring was promising covid-wise, and then slowly slide back.  But life got better and less restrictive, for sure.  

 

Problem was that I was so lost and down on myself, and anxious about finances, and how to succeed (without working harder).  All that was lost over the past few years continued to be lost.  Buzz, Trohv, Story District, Hallmark, etc.  

Shopmade ramped up and took a lot of my time and creative energy, but I keep coming to the conclusion that I'm putting in way more than I am getting out.  But of course I can't and shouldn't stop.  It's all so hard to calculate and understand.  I think I have a winning formula, only to get the rug pulled out (new mangers, closed stores, changing season, new stores) and I'm back to no mans land.  

 

Big thing in spring was renewing the studio lease.  All worked out with lots of angst.  In hindsight, I realize I should have asked for a much bigger reduction.  Commercial rent is in the toilet.  But I'm here for 3 more years, and rent just keeps going up.

Muddled along all year.  Cards shirts prints.  One color shirts for Fall which I'm still working on.  SHIRTS VEX ME ! ! ! ! ! ! !  ! ! ! !  I just can't figure out the right formula for color/style/design.  Gave up on women's V necks and did all unisex for Arts on the Ave.  Worked out ok.

 Planned all year for holiday only to have all melt down early November.  Spent waaaay to much time on cards, which fizzled this year compared to last, then got a ton of Micro orders and got bogged down with making / printing/ and no real time to market and sell.  But i guess all worked out.  Did ok, the best I could.  Every year is so different.  I never have a handle on what will sell best.

 Really enjoyed the one color prints on construction paper, developed on a fluke.  Really fun and easy to make, and seemed successful, but SM never asked for restocks, and very unsure how all sold.  Such a mystery to me.  They "seemed" to sell, so why wouldn't they ask for more?  I don't understand.

 

Anyway, overall take on 21: ????????????  

 

How to move forward??????  

 

All I have felt for years now is a downward slide.  How can I turn that around???????????  

 

I will be so happy if / when I ever figure that out.

 

 2020 wrap up

 2019 wrap up

2018 Wrap up

2017 Wrap up 

2016 Wrap up

2015 Wrap up

2014 Wrap up

2013 Wrap up

2012 Wrap up

2011 Wrap up

2010 Wrap up

2009 Wrap up

Friday, December 17, 2021

Today is the day Jimmy passed away