What a year it’s been! I’ve been reading some fabulously gorgeous review posts, with lots of lovely collages lately. I’m afraid that this post won’t be one of them! Why? ‘Cause I got too much stuff to do. One lesson that I continue to learn over and over is that for me, a blog post can NOT be my creative output! Although I can certainly get sucked into that vortex, I know that it’s the not making my art that I’ll look back on with regret! So without further ado…release the navel gazing!

The very first day of this year, I so thoughtfully posted some long term goals and inclinations (I don’t like resolutions!), so I’m gonna just comment on all of them.

My Word for 2010

Simplify

This was a great word for me! I may not have always followed the intention behind it, when I found myself mired in “analysis, paralysis” it was often because I was trying to do something too complicated – at which point, I would remember my word, LISTEN to it, choose the simplest path and MOVE ON! Thank you “simplify“, you were a great help!

My Inclinations for 2010

Create more Art!

Communicate my Art!

Holy moly! If you could have told me how I was gonna be communicating my art this year last January, I would have told you that you had rocks in your head! Read on McDuff!

Long Term Artistic Goals

1. Work more in 3 dimensions. Yup, I’ve made a lot more of my mod houses, I dabbled a bit with trees. I’ve got even more ideas that will take me through 2011 and beyond!
2. Explore the shape/idea of house/home. Yup, still a LOT more exploring to do!
3. Continue to work with restricted color palettes. Again, Yup!  I love the freedom I get with this approach.
4. Improve the pictures I take of my art! Geesh, I certainly hope so. I’m thinking that I’ll never be completely satisfied with this. “Simplify” helped me through a few rough spots here, because photography for me can be a huge time suck.

Long Term Business Goals

1. Double my Stats. My stats today, in order of how I prioritize them are:
   1. I’m at about 10,000 hits/month right now: After a little more research, I realize that gross hits/month isn’t the best way to look at traffic, because a few more or less posts/month can really skew the numbers, and I don’t want to be driven to produce content solely for the sake of hit count! So, what I’ve been keeping an eye on is absolute unique visitors/month. This number has not doubled. In fact, it started the year at 2,900/month, it’s been as low as 2,000/month and this month it’s 3,300. I’m trying really hard NOT to obsess about the numbers here, and I realize that I don’t have the best understanding of how to look at my stats…however, over the year I’ve had 26,693 unique visitors – that’s kind of exciting!
   2. I’ve got 69 RSS subscribers: Now, it’s 133. I’ve also added the google follow widget to the sidebar, so I’ll add those 39 folks here!
   3. 170 folks subscribed to my newsletter: Now it’s 274. Not double, but not bad.
   4. 123 Facebook Fans: 360 people now “like” Candied Fabrics. I’ve not done much special stuff with the FB page yet, but I’ve grown to appreciate FB in general this year, and with the help of alamodeSTUFF Linda’s very helpful series, I’m gonna rock my fan page next year!
   5. 438 Twitter followers: Which has become 1061! Ah, I love twitter! The immediacy of it has kept me company, and I’ve made some awesome friendships this way!
2. Simplify my business data. This is a work in progress, but with the help of my word of the year, I’ve come to realize that the crazy-ass way I do things in excel is working fine for me. If i  could travel back in time and tell my former self to start with outright or quickbooks, I would. But because I can’t time travel, for now I’m sticking with  the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it approach!”
3. Meet or exceed my sales for this year: Yes, I totally did this! As our economy continues to stagnate, I realize how incredibly lucky I am that I can stay in the black with my little business. HOWEVER! There’s NO WAY I’m quitting my day job!

Long Term Blogging Goals

1. Create a more meaningful blog. I think that I have. I’ve been happy with my Maker’s Must series, and I love the connections I make with both the Meetup goals posts and the One Moment meetups. I also realize that what I intended by this was me organizing the site so that people can find lots of info easily, which moving to Headway has helped and will continue to help me do.
2. Generate income from my blog, without being obnoxious about it. I did make a wee bit of affiliate money. My web design ventures have also added a slight bit to my balance sheet, and more importantly to me, allowed me to really understand the underpinning of WordPress based web design. I really enjoy the power of being able to say to an artistic friend “I can totally help you get online right now!” because I understand how overwhelming that is in the beginning.
3. Consolidate the tutorials I have and make more! This is a work in progress…the biggest increase here has been my monthly “Yes you CAN” tutorials over at Lillyella.
4. Increase my understanding of HTML and get my site looking even better. LOL! Um, yes, did that in spades! I now have a wee web design business, and a great partnership with a lovely lady who eats code for breakfast!

Pie in the Sky Goals

1. Get published in print! This, my friends is where I’ll crow a little! Seriously, I had no idea how much awesomeness was headed my way in this avenue!

Me and my studio in Cloth Paper Scissors Studio? Check!

My Mod Houses in Quilting Arts Gifts? Check!!

My Branch & Bird series in International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene? Check!!!

Me on Quilting Arts TV? Check!!!!

Seriously, I had no idea when I sent those proposals out this January that all of this would come to pass! I am so amazed at all the wonderfulness this year has brought, and i can’t thank you my blog-reading-FB-updating-tweeting pals all enough for the support that you’ve given me this year. (The comments on this post in particular were amazingly strength giving!)

I got the DVDs for this whole series in the mail on Christmas Eve! I super excited and honored to have my houses on the cover, right alongside some incredible work by Jean Wells.

Have I watched them yet? NO! But perhaps I’ll find the time and the courage this weekend! I don’t think that they’ve yet been scheduled to air, but I’m in Episodes 703 & 709. They have a station finder right here, where you type in your zip code and it gives you the upcoming schedule.

I’ve got big plans for next year, I can’t wait to put them into action! But for now, it’s New Year’s Eve morning, and my 3 guys, Stirling and I are headed up to a friend’s cabin in the Mammoth lakes region for a snowy and (hopefully) peaceful entry into the new year.

Happy New Year to you!

My latest “Ask Candy” post is up over at Alamode Stuff – it’s about how to get started with differnt presser feet on your sewing machine. I love this series…’cause folks ask me about all sorts of things that I know, and never thought anyone would be interested in. OR, it’s something I don’t know, but have a lot of fun learning about. So, please, if you’ve got a question, ask away!

If you need advice on blogging, however, I’ll send you straight to the master – Scoutie Girl Tara Gentile. She’s pre-launching her 2nd e-book on blogging called “52 MORE Weeks of Blogging Your Passion“. I’ve had a preview of the 1st 3 chapters and WOW! I didn’t think she could come up with any more advice on how to blog effectively, but she did! I’ve been a wee bit busy these past…(fill in the blank months), and sometimes I just can’t think up what to write about. Her original e-book “52 Weeks to Blogging Your Passion” has helped me out of a bind many a time, and I’ve been able to pretty much blog every weekday this year! (If you had told me that I’d write that many posts 2 years ago I would be rolling on the floor laughing)

During her pre-launch, she’s offering a hefty percentage off the price, and she’s got all sorts of extra goodies too (workbooks, a webinar, a special deal on her 1-on-1 brainstorming session). So if you’re looking to jumpstart blogging your passion,  please go avail yourself of some of Tara’s awesome advice! Am I an affiliate of hers? You betcha! I would NOT have my blog that I truly enjoy without her! I also wouldn’t have my little web design business either! Tara has inspired me to reach out in ways I never would have thought possible!

I had an amazing day today taping Quilting Arts TV. A detailed post with all the deets is coming…after I rest and absorb it all!

But, I had to stop in and let you folks know what a fantastic time I had…and also to rave about “Scoutie Girl” Tara Gentile & “Crafting an MBA” Megan Auman’s newest venture – The Creative Empire. They both have been such huge inspirations to me…they make me think about WHY I’m doing something with my little business, which leads me to understand a bit more about HOW I’m doing, and whether it’s a path I want to pursue. Megan has awesome advice on her blog about the nuts and bolts of running a creative business. She’s been “in the trenches” so to speak of running a handmade business, and so when she has advice to give, I know it’s been hard earned and well thought out! Tara, well she’s an inspiration to me! Her writing about WHY we should buy handmade speaks to my own beliefs…her 52 weeks to blogging your passion ebook has been a great help to my blogging on a daily basis.

Their newest venture is a creative community of support, training, and big ideas. I jumped on board the minute they opened it and I’m so glad I did. We’ve had some great conversations about where our businesses are headed, and some great brainstorms (with actionable advice) on how to grow our businesses. Am I an affiliate of this group – heck yeah! I love what they’re doing, and I’m proud to be part of it! So click on over and explore a bit more…and if you join, well that’s awesome. But whether you do or not, I hope you applaud folks who are doing their darndest to explain to the outside world why buying hand made is the RIGHT thing to do…and doing their darndest within our handmade community to help us be the best business-folk we can be!

It’s Monday, and I’ve got a lot to do in the next month. So much so, that it overwhelmed me a bit this weekend, and as a result, I got less done than I thought I would, which is setting me up for a downward spiral. (Please note, some of the stress and lack of focus is coming from things beyond my control). I woke up early this morning (due to fretting) and did what I’ve done so many times before – open up my Google reader and look to see what’s happening out there. And what greeted me was a great Monday morning post from Scoutie Girl Tara. She’s created a wonderful, free, printable/iphone wallpaper of an awesome phrase that describes her outlook on life:

And this is of course, exactly what I needed. Today I’ll be kicking down some doors, which are some of the things I’ve been putting off doing cause I don’t want to do them. I’ll do them, and get on with things! Thanks Tara!

And speaking of Tara, she’s offering an e-course in May called Between the Lines, telling the story of you & your business. I so wish I could take this course! I have improved my blog by following her advice in her ebook Blogging Your Passion, and weekly, something she writes on Scoutie Girl or her personal blog inspires me. She has a gift for putting into words the feelings I have about why I (and others) feel so strongly about making. This gift extends to me – it helps me zero in on a particular swirling topic and get it expressed on my blog. The awesomeness of this is that writing about issues helps me figure out why something is working, which ultimately leads to me working more/better/faster!

However, May means something called “May Term” here, which is me cramming an entire semester course into 3 and a half weeks, NOT the best time to add anything else to my docket. I do encourage anyone out there who’d like to “level-up” their internet presence to either sign up for Between the Lines or get her ebook Blogging Your Passion, I know you won’t regret it!

As a PSA, these links to Tara’s products are affiliate links, which would provide me with a wee bit of cash to keep this blog ticking away.

Thanks to the 65 folks who took my survey last week! It was really interesting! I love that I get input from my readers, it truly is true; blogging is about building a community. Suzanne Cabrera from the blog “an open [sketch]book” wrote about this Monday and came up with a genius graphic that describes a way to use a blog to build community:

You should definitely go see what she had to say in her post, as well as the comments – there are several excellent ones!

I was thinking about building a community when I designed that short survey for folks to take last week. Now that I’ve got a bunch of answers (65) I thought I’d share my results from the survey with you:

Lots and lots of you are quilters and sewists! That’s what I thought, but I wanted to make sure The neat thing is that so many of you clicked “other” and elaborated on what you make. More than a few of you are knitters, fabric surface designers and jewelry designers (doh! Of course – I don’t know why I didn’t include those in the choices), but there were a couple of cool others: stained glass, weaver, pattern writer, industrial designer, kumihimoist (Japanese braider) – Japanese Braiding? How interesting! I’ve never heard of that term before!

I see I’ve got a nice mix of readers – some who’ve been with me for a long time, and some who haven’t. It’s nice to see that I’m gaining more readers, and it also is a nice reminder for me that sometimes, someone is reading a particular post and it’s the 1st time they’ve dropped by. Which means I may start adding a sentence or two to re-confirm some basics of my work in a post that may seem like old hat you long time readers, but may be helpful for the newbies.

For example: Every time I post a new bag I get a question in the comments about what fabric I’m using. The answer: Cotton Duck (a type of canvas) that I’ve dyed!

Good to know. I subscribe to my blog in Google Reader so I can see how the posts format in a reader. Some kinds of formatting don’t come through in a reader, which can make for confusing reading. You may have noticed that I’ve started posting pictures in a larger collage -> although it’s one larger file to download, it allows me to have pictures included the way I want them to in the reader. I’ll continue to dink around with this so that posts look good both on the site and in a reader!

Yay! The things most people like to see are my art and my process! Since that is one of my main missions here, I’m glad to see that it’s what you’d like to see. And big surprise, most people want to see more tutorials. I was pretty sure you would, but again, nice to know. I also got some nice comments, like:

I enjoy looking at and reading about an artist’s creative endeavors. I also enjoy little tidbits about one’s personal lives. It’s nice to know that we can all relate with family, life, etc. as well as art and creating.

I love seeing the finished products in, on, or with their new “home”. It really shows off your work!

Your photos are gorgeous.

Your incredibly positive attitude and energy

i like everything! your blog is so well rounded that it’s always interesting to read

Also, a few of you wrote something very similar:

it’s your blog to put whatever you want on it – please don’t let anyone stop you from keeping it “you”

Again, thank you for that! You are right – this space is ultimately mine, I can do what I want with it. One of my goals is to give back to the blog-o-sphere, and help others learn about things that I do, just like I learned from other folks. Right now I’m struggling to find enough time to get everything I want to do done (who isn’t?). Any post takes time to write, and some of the posts I write are more for you than for me, so I needed to make sure they were wanted! But, for the most part, I learn just as much (or MORE) about myself and my process as you do, which is an amazing side effect of blogging.

So, if you‘ve stuck with me to the end of this post, I’ll just close by saying THANKS! Thanks for being here, answering my questions, sending me some awesome comments, and in general making me love my art all the more.

Okay, I’m ready to post this and I see that I haven’t labeled the axes in the graphs! ARGH! I’m gonna let it go, cause I’m thinking you’ll get the drift, but for those people who will notice this I apologize! If this were a lab report I were grading, I’d take 4 points off!