Planning a Creative Year

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you might already know how much I like the time between November and January 1st, when we say good bye to the old year and await the new one. I see the new year as a great place to Start Anew, to refresh your mind, to think, plan and dream of all the wonderful things you’re going to be creating in the new year.

I don’t even care that half of the ideas I list won’t happen this year either. I just try to enjoy the possibility to collectively (there is a lot of this mindset on blogs, instagram, YouTube and twitter right now) dream. It doesn’t have to be big dreams either…

Art Journaling

I think my most important plan for 2020 is to Art Journal “more” – ideally daily. To get back to the long lost habit of working in one book, and maybe document life there a bit more than I’ve been doing lately. I know that this is one of the things I long to do “more” of.

I long for more creativity in my life. How about you?

Art journaling is something that I think all of us would benefit from doing more. It is such a great instigator for thinking creatively, because it presents to many opportunities to explore, play, experiment and express self-love.

Art Journaling is a great instigator for thinking creatively – it presents to many opportunities to explore, play, experiment and express self-love.

More of Everything

To start I want to set up a place at home where I will have room for art journaling daily. I love the flow of something “daily” but I rarely can make it happen. But as I said, right now is the time to dream. It’s okay to fantasies about how awesome you’ll be next year, how every star will align for you…

I also want to write more often, paint a lot more, work on photo books like the one I wanted to make about my 365 Collage Project from 2018. My Idea List is super long!

I also need to re-find my love of yoga and walking, because my body don’t like me any more it seams. It wants me to move, and I’m all “I know dear, we’ll do it tomorrow” and I think my body won’t take that kind of answer any longer. In January I will join Yoga with Adrian on YouTube, as usual, and follow along with her challenge to start the year right. I would also like to meditate daily, if possible. But every other day will also work wonders for me, with all of these habits. It’s not what we aim for or plan but where we land and actually do that is important, right?

One Little Word

My word for 2019, never announced on the blog, was not in focus anyway. Right now I can’t even remember it… For this next year I have really been searching for one that I would like to keep close and work with, but it’s been a struggle to find one. I want to focus on my creativity, on health and feeling better mentally, on being more social, more open, on writing more, sharing more… But I also know that “more” is not my word, and maybe shouldn’t be anyone’s pick. It’s not considered to be very helpful when it comes to goal setting because it is not measurable. Five times a week, or “every second day” is a better goal than “more often” for example.

The only word so far that stuck in my head is the new-to-me concept of Ikigai, something I heard of by coincidence this autumn. Have you heard of it? It’s a buzz word right now, and it caught my attention because it seams to stand for a lot of what I’m interested in. It is a Japanese expression that according to Wikipedia means “reason for being” – i.e. what makes life worth living. If I do pick it, I will write more about it in another post.

What is your word of the year, if you pick one?

Also, Good bye Etsy

I ended my affair with Etsy last summer when my last digital download expired, and they asked their user to bake price and shipping cost into one and call it “free shipping”. It was kind of the drop, not only for me, but for a lot of Etsy Sellers. And looking at the statistics I know that almost all of my buyers find me through my blog anyway, not “on Etsy” as it is way too crowded for any seller that is not highlighted though an interview or special feature (or paying them to be seen) just as it is on Facebook these days. Plus it costs money just to list something, weather it ever gets sold or nor, there. I think that is wrong on so many levels, as I’ve already paid for materials and tools to make the things, added in my time and effort to make it, and don’t know if anyone will want to purchase that thing from me at this time. But still, just to show it of, I have to pay a fee. So it was time to say Good bye to Etsy in 2019.

So in 2020, I am hoping to open a new shop on my own site, selling both handmade journals and other items as well as digital downloads and collage papers. Keep an eye open for that shop, it’s going to be fun again to list things and share them here with you guys!

At the moment I’m sitting here with notebooks, loose papers, my bullet journal & diary, trying to think up what I want from myself and for myself in 2020. It’s a huge challenge, but also exciting. So very exciting!

Wishing you a Happy New Creative Year!

All the best

your friend on the internet
/Hanna

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