An Overview This Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday

Happy Friday, everyone. Another week is ready for the history books. 

At the beginning of the year I said I'd do a 2014 recap, and then completing Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace pretty much took over all my spare moments. Now that it's done, I can do a little reflecting.

The first thing I did was go through all of my blog posts from last year and collected the lion's share of images into this collage to the left. Boy it was another busy designing and painting and book reviewing and just generally creating year. The photos were a great prompt to remind me of all the creativity in my world. I am one truly lucky person. I also work hard to earn that luck!

One thing I noticed was the drop in blog posts from my 2012 high of 108 entries down to 66. That's not necessarily a bad thing (since I've consistently increased my design output), but it is a shift. I've also been writing for publication slightly more, which I really enjoy. I do hope I can continue that trend this year.

I also spent a lot of time and energy last year expanding my social footprint - I now have Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. I also started separate Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as a blog for the book. Between the blog and all of those other accounts, I felt was drowning in social media at the end of the year. Way.Too.Much. I shall be consolidating a few of these accounts (and in fact, I've already started with the blog). While I continue to have ambivalent feelings about Facebook (nothing against all the Facebook "people" out there, just a personal preference), I do enjoy my Twitter and Pinterest accounts, and my Pinterest boards are, along with my blog, far and away my most popular social media sites. For my interests and how I best like to represent those interests, that makes sense to me. I'm going to keep concentrating on what I like and works best and focus the extra energy I've been squandering on social media boondoggles into those creative areas that bring me so much joy - designing, painting, writing and cooking.

Lovely green yarn for an
upcoming design I've been
working on. Isn't it just spring
and summer in a photo?

Last year will also forever be marked by the process of publishing my first book. Someone once wrote that publishing a book is a transformative thing. I will absolutely agree with that! I am still too close to it all to accurately assess the transformation but, at minimum, I now know I can actually do it. Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace is 202 pages of pure awesomeness, and every little bit of it is all my creation. I still can't quite believe it, despite the evidence. I expect that my previous collections were leading me to this, although that's never been my intent with them. I'm usually fairly focused on each collection as I'm working on it. Nevertheless designing, writing, and doing artwork and photography for a book of this size on my own seemed a herculean task before I actually accomplished it. 

I will be announcing a new social media campaign next week, and so with spring and new beginnings came the perfect opportunity for me to look back. Last year was, overall, incredibly expansive and rewarding. It was also the best year for my design business - in all aspects. I now have a clearer picture of what I want to do this year. I hope you'll stick around for the ride.