I mentioned in my ~10-year retrospective at the start of this year that I wanted to get back into doing yearly art summaries, however I messed up this year! Due to no fault of my own (the kitchen renovation seriously overran by three weeks), I ended up missing an August post and I broke my own personal goal. I am still a little disappointed in myself! So no visual art summary this time, but the template will be ready for next time!

I looked over all of my creations for 2023, and they vary a lot by craft discipline. Origami, card making, felt flower, macramé, jewellery, sewing… I had a bit of everything last year! I also tried doing my own summary articles like origami flower wiring tips and collection posts like the mini planter collection. This is something I’d like to do more of! I would be able to collate all of my knowledge into summaries for visitors to read and look for general info hubs, rather than a specific craft project.

My favourite thing I worked on was definitely the mini planter collection though. Those small pots had been sitting on my shelf for about a year, waiting for their chance to be used. I’m happy I came up with the idea of putting a different type of plant in each one though!

Something I could have improved on is the Christmas-themed decorations. I actually had way more ideas that I did not get round to exploring, such as a macramé Christmas tree wall hanging, or more Christmas cards! I started my craft planning in December, but you really do need to start early if you want to be ready for the big day.

By the way, here is the workstation going into 2024! I keep buying more and more things and not having the space to store everything. I keep all my ribbons in a bag, and my jewellery stuff in an overflow dresser. But I haven’t quite figured out where the cardmaking stuff can go yet… And the Christmas macramé bundles are so big, I have no idea where it can go! There are even bits of current projects that I started on but never finished, like the papercraft hellebore flowers. I also recently got new packs of patterned origami paper, so look forward to that!

On the right-hand side, I keep my many stacks of paper – plain paper, plain card, origami patterned paper, etc.! As well as my paints and various materials such as felt, tissue paper. There is a box for origami stars and jars, and another for miscellaneous.

They say it’s good to start the year with a big clean up, and I think I’ll do just that this weekend!

In 2024, I’d like to post more mini projects. Sometimes I think I have to work on something grander than the last attempt, but these things can eat up a lot of time. Not everything needs to be big and eye-catching! So I’ll try coming up with more mini collections.

So here’s to 2024, I hope I will achieve my goals, and I hope you do too!