A little 2020 reflection + goals for this year!!

     Hi patrons!! I figured it'd be fun to do a little reflection on things I did over the past year and overall just kind of sum up my year. 2020 was really Cursed (as we all know) but honestly I did a lot over the year and I'm really proud of myself for some of the things that I accomplished! It's kind of hard for me to think back and remember things that happened this year as a whole tbh?? My time perception has always been not the best but ever since pandemic, last week both feels like 3 months ago and also yesterday. 

     Stephen and I adopted our second cat, Fiora (which happened in March!! which is insane,, it feels like it happened waay longer ago than that. we haven't even had her for a year yet!!). 

     I started playing around with making sellable art this year! I started making stickers pretty early in the year, and in the past six months or so I've really furthered that process. I started playing around with making prints, I bought my Cricut (hand cutting stickers took its toll on me very quickly), and the most exciting thing that that led to was me opening physical rewards on my Patreon!! 

     Patreon is definitely the thing that I'm most proud of accomplishing this year. There were a lot of things that set me back from opening physical rewards/really putting time into Patreon, so I'm really proud of myself for putting myself out there and doing this. One of the weirdly biggest things that set me back from opening physical rewards/selling ANYTHING was just the concept of opening a PO box - they're not insanely expensive by any means, but they are a good chunk of money, and I knew I wanted a PO box for the sole purpose of using that address as a return address on anything I was sending out. So I am very happy that I opened one a couple months ago, because that was my biggest excuse for not opening physical rewards/selling my art!!

     It's a little weird to look back at my initial mentality when I started the year because I was actually really hoping to open an online storefront in the first half of 2020, but then pandemic happened and that concept got insanely sidetracked. I work a retail job, and when things started picking up with COVID-19 cases in the US, my day job got a loot busier and just more chaotic as a whole, so I lost a lot of mental momentum and energy when it came to selling my art. That being said, I still kind of have the same goal, only for this year, and I'm really hoping to open a shop soon! 

     I think, realistically, it's for sure something that I'll be able to do within the first half of this year! Which is super exciting!! When I first open my shop (and probably for a while afterwards) I'll probably only have prints and stickers available in my shop, but in the future I'd really like to offer other things that are sourced from other companies such as enamel pins, wood pins, zines (I really want to do small zines that are compilations of sketchbook artworks!! that's something I've looked into before and I think that would be a very fun thing to offer) and lots more! I am very happy to be in the position where I have my Cricut and a reliable printer and am able to make stuff from home for the time being, though!! 

     I've done a lot more research and put a lot more time into finding a website to open an online storefront through, actually making physical merchandise, etc., so I'm definitely in a much better position right now than I was at this time last year. 

     As far as the rest of 2020 went for me, pandemic, protests, wildfires, and etc. aside, I think I had a really good year?? I did a lot of self reflection for things in my personal life and both learned and understood a lot more about myself, and all in all, I think on a personal note, it was a productive and good year for me. I didn't accomplish as much as I had intended because of everything going on in the world, but I'm proud of myself for what I did do!

     As far as Patreon is concerned, I'm insanely happy with how it has been going!! I really had small expectations for the turnout on Patreon, since I really had no idea what to expect, but I'm only on my third month and I've been having such a fun time working on this platform!! I'm currently making $171/mo on Patreon (which has gone up each month a LOT since I've opened my print tier!!) and I'm immensely grateful for that since that'll really jumpstart me into opening an online store!! Just the initial purchases of shipping mailers, bags, tissue paper, and etc. that I'll be making add up really quickly so being able to get the extra money from Patreon has made such an insane difference.

     As with every year, my art also grew a lot since the beginning of the year!! More than anything, I think I just further rendered how I want my art to look, and on top of that, the usual style changes that come with drawing more. I've been in a pretty good place with how my art looks for the past year or so!!

     I know most people do "new years resolutions" this time of year, but I've really gotten out of the mentality of doing that for the past several years. More than anything, I just have some goals that I want to accomplish over time - whether they happen in one month or 2 years - and I'm good with that!! 

     2020 was a shit show for a lot of people, but I am v v grateful to be where I am currently. I have a lot of things that I hope to accomplish this year and overall I am just looking forward to looking back at this post a year from now and seeing all of the things I have been able to do!

I hope you all had a good start to the new year!! If you've made it this far, thank you for listening to my ramblings. I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

     ♡ Chrissy