Wednesday 15 January 2014

2014…The year of the joy blog…?

So another year has passed and I again failed to write a lot on my blog.
It seems to be a habit I am not very good at getting into, I think partially because I use Facebook/Instagram so much and they are just basically micro-blogging it then sometimes becomes a bit of a weird thing to the re-write everything I wrote over a week or so in one big summary blog post.
So I will try and blog more I do some big things sometimes and some little things that add up over time and perhaps it will help me to write more. It's been a long time since I wrote anything substantial, probably my dissertation in uni (in 2010!) was my last big writing job.
I read on Facebook that Anna of the brilliant Buttonsy Jewellery https://www.facebook.com/Buttonsy is doing a 'Jar of Joy' so each time something nice/positive/happy happens she writes it down on a piece of paper and puts it in a jar so then at the end of the year she can reflect on it and also make a point of each time something good happens being able to focus on it. So perhaps my blog could be a space for that too. I would probably end up mixing up my scrap and joy paper and throw my joy away!
So here is my joy for the day:
Three customers are excited about their pieces being made soon!

2013 summed up:
By Charlie's Hand got more likes on Facebook and orders/interest increased.
I increased my income and profits substantially to the point where I am having to pay tax which is slightly horrible but a really weirdly good achievement.
I didn't have a complete meltdown and managed to get all my work done!
I made approximately 120+ commissioned papercuts a long with 19 original works.
Expanded my product range to include screen prints, cotton tote bags and tea towels!
I reached over 500 sales on Folksy.
Took some time off for Christmas and went to see The Postal Service earlier in the year who were amazing.
Have lived with the Trucker for over a year and not killed each other/broken up and when you consider we pretty much spent the first 5 years of our relationship seeing each other once a week it's a fairly big deal to start living together and adjust to seeing each other every day and not argue too much over who cleans the toilet and cooks.
I turned 26 and have been full time self employed for over 2 years and run a profitable business.
I didn't attend any funerals, which after our little spree in 2011 this is a nice thing.

Plans for 2014:
BCH plans to become bigger, better, more products, more original work, more designs on existing products, sort out a separate BCH website, blog more, just grow but be organic and make it sustainable and manageable.

Do my tax return earlier than the January in which it is due by!

Go on holiday and have more time off like a normal person job! Even f it's just a day here or there I need to take more 'me time' and not feel guilty for not checking my page/email every 10 minutes!

Personally I do want to start the process of owning my own home, I've been saving hard in general because being self employed I always want to have a safety net that if I can't work for whatever reason (touch wood nothing bad happens) I and we as a couple would be financially ok for a period of time and it wouldn't be a massive strain on the Trucker to support us both. But I do also want to own a house, so I can paint the walls if I want, put a picture up on the wall and not have to worry/ask my landlord if it's ok or if they can fix something that's broken/not working properly. I don't want to spend my life paying for someone else's mortgage as lovely as this house it it's not really ours, it's home but not in a way that is really permanent. Renting has been good in that it commits me and the Trucker together but not too tightly as moving in together was an experiment as I have always described us as two very independent people who are in a relationship together so it's allowed us to figure it all out and fall into a set up that works for us and if it all went to hell we didn't throw our life savings and finances in together which would have been harder to detangled with a mortgage/house sale etc. So that's in the future plans of stuff to do.

Be an AWESOME bridesmaid for my best friend Joanna who is getting married in August!
Fit into my size 4 bridesmaid dress!

Exercise more because I sit on my backside working so much that I am going to get really fat and unhealthy if I don't move around more!

BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY!