new year, new rules

Last sunrise of 2013!

So New Years Eve came and went without much of a fuss at our house. To be honest, I was in the middle of taking a break from working to watch some Big Lebowski and work on a puzzle and didn't even realize we had passed into 2014 until 12:08 am! A calm beginning to a year that is going to be anything but calm...

There are a lot of changes coming to Sketchy Notions this year! I launched the first one on New Years Day: price changes! My Etsy shop is slowly but surely gaining traction and helping support my little Sketchy empire. It has been years since I changed my prices so the time has come. The changes aren't that large, a couple dollars here and there, but just enough. I think the quality of my work has improved greatly since I first started offering custom albums, books and watercolors and I want my prices to reflect the confidence that I have in my ability to create a unique and valuable product. I'm also rearranging products, shifting cards and such to the Sketchy Notions shop to leave Notional Notions just for custom goodies and artist books. 

Another biggie and quite awesome thing happened yesterday too! Back in September I applied for copyright of Sketchy Notions. I got a phone call from the Office of Patents and Trademarks yesterday to finalize a couple details, meaning in a matter of days or weeks Sketchy Notions will officially be trademarked! This doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things but it makes this little business of mine just a little more mine, legally speaking at least. Plus having the legal protection of that little © will give me a little more peace of mind spreading my work across the interwebs. 

The newest addition to my Etsy shop: custom watercolored cards! Perfect for weddings...

Other notable news to share, I won't be going to Japan this year after all. But I will be going back to Italy! It has been over a year since I was last among the cobblestone streets and Tuscan sun and I'm itching to hop on the plane! No dates yet but this also means another sketchbook like Terzo is in the works. What do you think of the name Quarto? Quarto Quadro? Q²? 

The last bit of news to share is that I won't be doing another list like 25 before 26 this year. With Sketchy gaining speed, I lost focus on my original list. I still accomplished a lot on that list and a significant number of things not even on the list! So this year I'm switching it up. I'm currently working on a new list: 12 goals for Sketchy, 12 goals for Chelsea. Still a daunting number of goals (24!) but by separating my business goals from my personal ones,  I think I will be more successful at accomplishing all 24. I'll share all of those soon once I can figure them all out!