I am not sure when the deadline is to stop saying Happy New Year! But I feel I haven’t said it properly to all of you yet…so here we go…I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I am still just about holding on to that lovely fresh feeling and sense of opportunity that January can bring. I thought it would be good to write down my ruminations and share them, mainly as means of clinging on to them before they have been completely ground out of me with everything real life has to throw at us!
Reflecting on last year I realise it was actually pretty epic for me. In February, after a 4-year gap, I launched a new fabric & wallpaper collection, which was the culmination of a couple of years of hard work. I am normally the most terrible self critic, but I am pretty pleased with how it came out and sales seem to be backing this up 😄
The other seismic event for our family was finally moving into our new house that we have built from scratch, after a 10 year ordeal! I am due to write another ‘How not to build a house’ post – but the truth is Alex & I collapsed in a heap after we moved in and have only just finished unpacking boxes. There is still so much to do, but I am trying hard to focus on what we have achieved and not what lies ahead. Now our PTSD is slightly subsiding – I am beginning to feel it was (almost) all worth it. The house has been toasty warm over the holidays and cooking has gone from being a tedious ordeal to a pleasure in the beautiful new kitchen.
What will the coming year bring I wonder…?! Certainly, there will be lots of new designs, and products. And please dear Lord can I have my garden and outdoor areas sorted out at the very least by the end of the year. We are also planning on giving the website a complete overhaul too. a tangle of cardoons, teasels, dill seed heads and verbena. I have gathered and photographed so many plants from her garden that I pretty much designed my entire fabric & wallpaper collection from the stalks and seed heads I plundered.
Long serving customers and friends may remember that I am a bit of a fan of Self-Development. So of course, New Year resolutions have long been dear to my heart. Looking back over past years though, I realised I used to write down exactly the same ones year after year, without ever achieving them.
A friend of mine who I admire greatly always chooses one word that she uses as her guiding star throughout the year, so I decided I would do the same. I thought long and hard about it, and I have concluded that mine will be EXPLORE! I am deeply excited about this idea as it can cover so many areas (as your word should – you don’t want it to be too specific)
I am planning to take some time to do new courses to get my creative juices flowing, to travel as much as I possibly can, read and generally DO things that push me out of my comfort zone as much as possible. And I am also hoping to write about my explorations too… so there it is, I will have to do it now I have said it out loud!
Having fun exploring colour…
Hoping for more explorations like these this year!
I hope you will join me on my explorations in 2024. I adore getting replies to my blog posts and always read them, and try and reply if I can. What would your word be for the year and why?
