A New Year, a New Horizon

Well yet another year has come and gone and instead of taking a look back into the dust to see what was accomplished I thought I’d set my sights on the horizon this time. It’s best to travel forward and be inspired by what”s to come. Don’t get me wrong – the last year was full of huge and wonderful changes…but it’s this next one that I am looking forward to. Every year around this time I start to get quite a few ideas rattlin around my brain. I finally have some time after the Holiday rush of orders to settle back into a rhythm in the workshop and plan out the year ahead. How about some New Year’s Resolutions to kick off 2016:

Get outside more.

This includes just some of the simple pleasures like taking a nice walk on down to the workshop in the morning, perhaps as the sun is rising out over the foothills to the East.

Go further outside and closer to nature.

Over the last year or so I have been honing some of my backpacking skills and cutting down on gear and weights. Taking a few ultralight trips out into the deserts in the Eastern edges of California. Solo trips are the best and going light is a must, especially in the desert where you typically need to carry all of your water. This next year I plan to make quite a few more trips out into the sticks and take some photos along the way to share on here.

Acquire some new leatherworking skills.

I already have a head start on this one with my whipmaking adventure (see post here). In doing so I am learning a great deal about plaiting leather which can come in handy to create a whole different style of braided items. I am also looking into dragging my leather sewing machine out of storage to see if I can fire it up again and potentially add to the complexity of bag designs in the next year. I am all for rivets in my work, but there are a few applications that can benefit from the stitch. Anyhow -the idea is that the learning never stops and that’s probably the most fun part of working with your hands. Always something new to master.

Blog about things that inspire me.

This past year I focused a lot on building up my social media presence for the biz. It is a ton of work and very distracting The end result I find is that I post things that are of semi-importance without much real substance behind them. You know – photos taken just for that instagram post or a product shot to promote a new design on Facebook. In doing this I had neglected this blog, my photography and other artistic passions I used to pursue in favor of the quick and dirty social media post. Well, I am drawing the line right here and now. I aim to post right here on the blog first – about things that inspire me. If you dig deeper back into this blog site to my first posts you will get an idea of what I will be aiming for in the next year. Just a bit more pure unfettered artistic expression.

Try to stop answering customer emails after 9pm.

Ha! That’s a tough one because I never really feel that I am working now that I have found something I  love to do. Though any form of technology should probably be shut off for me around this time and instead – just grab a good ol’ fashioned book.

Take a few risks.

I am not sure what they are quite yet, but there are always plenty to choose from in a year. I like taking calculated ones, but sometimes you gotta just jump right into it and cross your fingers.

I hope all y’all have some things in mind to help guide you into the new year, feel free to share them in the comments below. It’s good to have a focus and some thoughts on how we can keep improving our lives. Just keep on traveling forward, the horizon will always be just in sight.