Simplify 2014

 

We are on a road less travelled, a path less glitzy than those chosen by many of our peers. We’ve spent the last year and a half watching our values slowly shift and now? Now we’re ready to get down to the nitty gritty and really change how we live. Why not really examine our values, particularly at this time of year when our perspective has been skewed by glossy marketing campaigns and an insatiable need to buy, buy, buy. Why not choose to reject so much of what society has taught us is necessary, desirable, important. Why not hold ourselves accountable and quit making excuses for not achieving our goals, for not living the way we really want. Why not just choose less, just the most important things, and leave the rest.

These are the questions we’ve been pondering over the last year and a half, even more so in the last few weeks. I really think we can choose to live in a way that’s just different. Maybe less convenient and less “fancy” but perhaps more fulfilling. We have some financial goals we’d like to reach by this time next year and reaching those goals will require a fairly radical shift in our spending and saving patterns. I’m excited about it, actually. Its going to be challenging in many ways, but we’re up for it.

So the word for the coming year is SIMPLIFY. Strip it down to the essential and enjoy that.

My first order of business has been to evaluate my Etsy shop and this blog. I love painting, I love writing. I don’t love selling. I love sharing my work but I don’t love all the time and money that has to go into an Etsy shop in order for people to see it, never mind to generate actual sales. When I think about why I want to sell my art its so that I have the motivation to paint more, its to share it at an affordable price, to be a part of a culture of local, handmade and unique art. I like my work and I think others like it too, but I’m not willing to slave away at a computer for hours every day in the hopes that I’ll get a few sales here and there.

So, I’m going to strip it down to the essentials. Just this blog and my Facebook page. I’ll share my new work, the story behind it and the price and people can order directly from me. So much better.

Since I’ve already got quite a few items listed on Etsy, I’ve decided to offer a discount on all items in the shop until the listings expire or everything sells out. Just enter the coupon code SIMPLIFY2014 on checkout.

Here’s to a year of simplicity and loving what really matters.