Christmas Decorating and a Happy New Year

If you haven't already gathered posting is going to be on the light side for the next couple of weeks. I'm not back on deck officially until the 16th of January... woohoo!! 2011 was such an overwhelmingly busy time for me, I really need some time out to work out how to take Ruby & Willow forward. Don't get me wrong busy is great, but not when it means you can't operate as efficiently as you'd like to be. So I need to work out how best to manage the stationery side of things together with my new commitments with {MAG}rouge... which is a project I absolutely love working on. I may cut back a little on the amount of jobs I take on with R&W... again, just trying to make it all work. I also lost all the time I had to simply browse through blogs, magazines, to get inspired and do my own little creative projects so in 2012 I want to ensure I have more time not only for that, but simply to 'smell the roses'. When my last job went out the door prior to Christmas, I sat in the sun in a deckchair, (thankfully it was one of the handful of sunny days we've had this summer!) in my garden, with a book, and was practically in a state of euphoria over just being able to 'sit and be'. Then I even pottered in the garden, without the stress of knowing I had to rush back to get things done. I need to do that more... it's good for the soul, to just take time out.

Most of the time this year I've felt 10 steps behind, like I'm always playing catch up, and never quite on top of things, and to be perfectly honest, I really don't like that feeling! I've always been one to work better under pressure (yep best school marks were on projects started the night before!) but I seriously need some things to change going forward. For one I need to become far more organised! Two; I want to focus more on design, which is afterall what I got into this business for, which means having help to do all the tasks that I'm not so great at (that's quite the long list!!). Three; I want to spend more time building the letterpress side of Ruby & Willow, which I haven't been able to spend as many hours on as I'd have liked to so far. Four; this little ol' blog may be due for an overhaul... again something I'm still considering. It is what sparked the whole {MAG}rouge thing, but it's still part of me rather than the team as a whole so I need to work out how it's going to sit going forward. I'm also going to be taking on sponsors in the New Year so if you're interested in that please flick me an email. This is something I've been asked about several times over the past year or so it's time to take that leap. I'm super excited about where {MAG}rouge is going... and holy moly our next cover shoot... well that seriously takes the cake... beyond thrilled with what we have lined up!! 

Before I go I'd just like to send out a huge heartfelt thank you to all my lovely readers who take the time to visit each day and leave lovely feedback and comments both here and on my facebook page. I appreciate all of you so much! And to all the fabulously talented vendors and people I've met through not only this blog, but facebook and twitter, I've loved getting to know you and I hope to have more time in 2012 to interact and work together.

Finally... I had some fun with my Christmas decor this year so thought I'd share a little of it with you. As you can see I steered away from the red and gold and went with a fresh, slightly woodsy look this year! What colours did everyone else go with?

Happy New Year everyone!! xoxo