End-of-2024 review and Thank you!

December here we go! 2024 is nearly over and 2025 is waiting just around the corner. Time for a end-of-year review (big fan of reviews 🙂)! 

But first of all I would like to thank you so much for reading this blog and being interested in my art and writing. I really hope you enjoy these pages and the artworks and that you get some inspiration and motivation for your own life.

Before I’m going to dive into how my New Year’s resolutions worked out I want to recap 2024 in general.

In short: It was very different than expected. 

2024 taught me that it is indeed important to have a plan even though – or precisely because – life happens. 

In spring / summer there was a huge change in my day job: I now work more hours and have a different position. I had (and still have) to learn a lot and it took a while to adapt which together with longer hours took and takes a good share of my time and energetic capacities. 

This also meant I had to streamline working on my side hustle – making and selling my art. To move forward with less time it was and still is important to figure out and focus on what is the most important.

I was happy to have my New Year’s resolutions top of mind because this really helped in deciding on what to do day by day. 

Otherwise it would have been so easy to get distracted, lose track and let making art and blogging fizzle out.

Did I do it perfectly? Absolutely not! Due to limited time it all went much slower than expected. Also I need more time to rest which additionally restricts time slots for working on my art. I admit it is frustrating at times.

But there are also good sides about working in this new position in my day job. 

I can tell you I became so much more confident. I have to deal with people and topics I was intimidated by before. Now this has almost become my new normal. Not fully there yet, but it’s getting easier every day. Just the fact that I had the courage to take on this new position boosted my self-confidence. And now that I’m working in it and it’s going well, it feels like the next level. 

And though the time for making art is limited at the moment, taking on the new position was the right decision. I’ve become more confident, more professional and more relaxed at the same time. This experience is priceless.

What also happened was that my personal style of writing Kurrent script evolved greatly. I was ready to let go of some of the helping lines I used for the last years. Now my handwriting has a much more personal and unique style which I am super enthusiastic about (read more about this here). 

With this being said, let’s take a look at my New Year’s resolutions and how it all turned out at the end of the year.

Resolution 1) Creating two blog posts a month

This turned into one blog post a month in May and it worked well. Out of 17 planned blog posts I missed only three. Happy with that! It is doable and has become a routine. For sure I’ll stick to it in 2025. 

Resolution 2) Creating one piece of art each quarter

Oof! Oh dear, that did not work out at all. I didn’t finish one piece. Well, I did finish one piece, “Travelling alone”. It is a quite elaborated piece, Kurrent script only, finishing it took one year. Now it is finally done! But technical issues get in the way of making it available as a fine art print. Working on it, hopefully it can be solved soon. 

I totally underestimated how long creating this piece would take. So should I call this resolution a fail? You probably could. But it doesn’t feel like failure. I know exactly why I didn’t meet that resolution. I did my very best, worked on it almost every day. It simply took as long as it took. No hard feelings on this one. Still I’m going to stick to the resolution / plan of creating one piece each quarter in 2025.

Resolution 3) Decluttering

At the moment my desk is more of a mess than I’d like to admit. And it annoys me. But – I know most of the mess is temporary. Some things are Christmas items, other things I “just” have to file. It feels like there is a certain rhythm of spaciousness and clutter. What I consider as positive is that the clutter phases are mainly because of new things coming in (like mailings etc.). They don’t pile up as they used to do 🙂 So overall I’m happy with my progress.

The conclusion?

This year turned out much different than expected. Some of my resolutions have become routine by now like writing blog posts regularly and decluttering which I will definitely stick to. Other goals I didn’t meet like creating one piece of art per quarter. Nevertheless I will take this resolution with me into the new year. 

2024 was a year I learnt things I did not at all expect. I have grown so much on a personal level which I’m very grateful for. 

On a very practical level I have learnt how important it is to have a clear focus so that one can still move forward when life gets in the way.

How was your 2024? What did you experience, what did you learn?

Tell me about it in the comments below  or write me an e-mail at hello@annikaruhwedel.com !   

I wish you all the best for 2025!

Biggest cheers to you,

Annika