New Year's Resolutions

Happy New year! I hope you had a lovely holiday and a fun new year, whatever you got up to.


I'm back to work and full of plans for 2012. My Etsy and Folksy shops are now back up and running after the holidays and I'm hoping to be filling them with some lovely new things in the near future.

It's been great to have some time off, away from work and, as is traditional, I've been thinking about my HelloWilson resolutions for this year (I won't bore you with my personal ones to eat 5 a day etc etc.) Here they are:

1. Experiment with new illustrations
It can feel like a very fine line between having an illustration style and just being stuck in a creative rut. Look out for some experimentation with subject, materials, scale and style this year.

2. Do more hands on making
I completely love working for myself but I still feel a little jealous of those people who get to spend all day everyday making. I spend far too much time on my computer and nowhere near enough time getting my hands dirty. This year I will expland the range of products that I sell with a particular emphasis on things I have made myself.

3. Keep a better record of my ideas
Although I'm a habitual list writer and jotter down of ideas I think that a lot of my brainwaves would be better recorded and tested out as sketches. So this year I'm going to be sketching more.

4. Improve my photography skills
I think this one may have popped up last year too and although I have improved my product shots over the year I still feel I have a long way to go. I think it will take a mixture of learning to use my camera more effectively and potentially investing in some extra equipment to give my photos the edge.

5. Be a better blogger
I had a great response to the more indepth blog post I wrote about my experiences as a newbie on Folksy and so I'm aiming to write more posts which might be useful to other people (I've got one about marketing in the pipeline). I'd also like to experiment with guest blogging, more competitions and reviews - rather than just my news.

What do you think of these resolutions? Any tips for achieving them? What are your new year's resolutions for 2012?