Happy New Year!!

 A new year, 2015.  2014, was something special, mainly because of that blue-eyed beauty pictured above.  She is a smiley, easy-going gal, already attracted to the idea of sewing (see the spool?).  She's not crawling yet, which, for me, is when everything changes, but she sure rolls like a champ.  I worried about getting things done with her around, but things have been going pretty well, if not a little frantic.  There aren't as many naps (for me), as I'd like (especially since winter showed up down here on the bayou----tall ceilings are beautiful, but the heat hides from us up there). 

I designed a few new things in this new year so far.  These mainly are for friends having babies.  I am particularly proud of that sweet little hedgehog girl up there on the right.

Oh yes, and the Beatles.  We all live in a Yellow Submarine.  This one goes to baby Jackson, son of my friend, Tracey, who has the best taste.  She lives all the way in California.  Why is our country so big?  Why does everyone live so far away from Louisiana?  Though, honestly, Louisiana, I love your winters.  Deeply.  Your summers, though?  Meh.

Then there are these monsters ^^^  I've been wanting to make a monster mobile since I started making mobiles, and finally, Carolyn's baby girl gave me a chance.  This is one my husband loves.

I have a lot of business goals for the New Year.  I thought it would be a good idea to write them down here.  You know what they say about accountability being effective for commitment to change?  Keep me accountable, internets!

Goals:

1.  I want to change my blog format so that the pictures are really large and all the same size.  I see it on other blogs and it looks so nice and organized.  How do you do that?  

2.  I want to blog more often, with special day-of-the-week categories, maybe?  I think it's fun to show people side-by-side with their personalized dolls, so that could be one category.  I also want to do some sort of photographic documentation of being a work-at-home mom (though I must give cred to my next door nanny, who does watch little girl a few days a week).  

3.  This is a big one.  This year, I have a goal to make and sell 5 patterns.  I am going to call them my Simple Sillies.  They will be baby mobile patterns.  I know for sure I am going to make a ninja one, a sumo one, a ballerina sheep one, and ???  Any ideas for the other two?  I actually think for this one I will finally utilize my connection to art students (my husband is a professor of painting and knows all sorts of eager graphic design students).  I will need help on the computery side of things.

4.  I desperately want to design fabrics.  I want to start small by designing a bib.  Again, the computer comes into play here.  Computers intimidate me.  Throw in a scanner and I am cowering in the corner doing deep breathing exercises.  Maybe I'll utilize those clever art students again.  The younger generation just knows how to do these things.

5.  I want to have ready-made items in my shop.  My made-to-order items are at a looong turnaround. 11 weeks?  That's crazy.  I am lucky I make mobiles and babies take so long to "cook".  I feel like I am always, always, always working on my made-to-order mobiles, and I need to carve some time into my schedule for new designs that I can make a few of at once and then have on the go, for people who don't order things months in advance.

So, that's that!  My real life/non-businessy goals are pretty standard.  Read more, eat less cookies, you know.  I'm excited for this year, though.  I can't think of a snappy sentence to end on.  I'll just end with a, "Hurray!".