I must confess that I’ve been struggling with keeping up this blog. I was thinking the other day about what “fun” means to me and I realized I’m having fun when I’m doing something and I completely lose track of time…like when I’m reading, decluttering, creating in Adobe Illustrator, coding websites and planning projects. I cannot honestly say that I lose track of time when I write this blog, but I think partly that’s because I haven’t really found my voice yet. I had an a-ha moment while reading Stacy’s thoughts on Kids Stuff World and I’m inspired to share more of me via this blog instead of letting it drift.

So, sharing my intentions for 2010 seems like a good place to start.

Last night I watched this free preview video for the Live Your Truth project. I’d visited Elizabeth’s website months ago, but it was only yesterday that I stumbled upon it again and this time what she was saying really resonated with me. First, she talked about finding your passion by thinking of what you do when you lose track of time. Yes, exactly what I’d just been thinking about a few days ago! Later she talked about creating mental and physical space if you’re feeling stuck with your creating.

As it happens, at the beginning of January I made a big change in my business - I’m no longer selling Sweetbeets wholesale to retailers. Now that I think of it, this change created both mental and physical space. Neat! I absolutely love letterpress printing, but I need to have my designs printed in fairly high quantities to offset the cost of the time-consuming set up of the press. No doubt this affected my design process since I knew I would have a lot of money invested in the printing of each design and I didn’t know how well cards would sell. I realized that the wholesale part of my business is not sustainable unless I were to begin working with a network of sales reps. Plus I’d have to increase my collection (and inventory) in a big way, and as aspiring minimalist, the prospect of this weighed on me. It was time to just let go.

The upside is this gives me a lot more time and energy to focus on other things.

I’ve already started creating a bunch of new printable birthday and baby shower invitation designs for the do-it-yourself party host, and I’ll soon be offering customization of fonts and colors. You’ll also now find some printable valentines for kids in my shop.

This year I will (finally) launch Gift Gush, the curated marketplace that connects independent designers and artisans with people who are looking for unique gifts for babies and kids. Last year I made a lot of progress and the first phase of website development was completed. Then it stalled because the website developer I hired didn’t finish the next phase in a timely manner. After a delay of more than 3 months I decided to develop the website myself. I was working on it nearly every day prior to the holidays and got a lot of the coding done. I now just need to learn some more php coding to connect the website with the database. I intend to find some online courses to figure it out and get things moving again.

I also wanted to share one big lifestyle change I’ll make in 2010 - I’m going to sell my car in June. Until recently I thought I needed my car since my oldest son (plus my youngest son starting in September) goes to a school outside our neighborhood (about 4 miles or 6 kms away) and every day I drive him to and from school. This blog post and this one inspired me to think outside the box. I realized there is a bus (actually 2) that stops near our home and near the school and the route will allow me to get the kids to school on time without a lot of waiting around. I’ll walk home (after drop off) at least 3 times a week to get organic exercise. We’re lucky to live in a walkable neighborhood with a grocery store, library, old-fashioned movie theatre, banks, drug store, restaurants, gift shops etc within a 5-10 minute walk, and my husband still will have his car since he commutes to work. So how hard should it be? My kids are super excited about taking the bus so that helps. Hopefully the novelty won’t wear off too soon.

Wow, this is probably my longest ever blog post! Stay tuned for some upcoming posts about some neat handmade things for kids that I’ve found online in the past couple of weeks…

Technorati Tags: 2010 intentions, goals, printable valentines for kids