As we near the end of 2024, I can’t help but feel reflective. I look back at the year, the projects I’ve tackled, the goals I’ve accomplished, and I begin dreaming about 2025.

With next year’s calendar in front of me, I look forward and back at the same time.

Creating a calendar with my art is a yearly tradition for me.

It’s fun to choose just the right painting for each month. And then in my studio throughout the year, it’s fun to turn each page and remember my inspirations from previous seasons.

Each year’s calendar is a record of my journey.

My 2025 calendar is the 12th calendar I’ve designed, a number that boggles my mind a bit.

In the summer of 2013, I began working on my first calendar. At that time I was selling handmade purses, jewelry and scarves on Etsy. I’d been painting for almost three years. Creating a calendar with my art had been a long-held dream, one I started imagining before I ever picked up a paintbrush. That summer my goal was to finish the calendar in time for a September art fair.

I didn’t yet know how to use Photoshop. But I was determined to learn.

I made quite a few mistakes along the way.

(Luckily I caught that one before the show).

I printed the 2014 calendars myself (and continued to do so with 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018). It was an extremely time-consuming process. I couldn’t simply load my printer and work on something else. I needed to feed the pages individually or the printer would jam.

I also trimmed every single page page.

Each edge and every corner.

I worked hard preparing for the fair. And the calendars were ready in time.

I can’t tell you if I sold any calendars that day. I don’t remember and I can’t find a record.

I know I didn’t sell much. A purse. A bracelet. Maybe a few other small things. (But it was better than the earlier fair where I sold nothing).

Two months later, Matthias and I moved to Wisconsin. I set up my studio in our new home. I added my calendars and some paintings to my Etsy shop.

Then that December I participated in the Holiday Faire at the Waldorf School in town.

It was a much more successful show and I know I sold some calendars and other items, too.

In the past (here and here) I’ve commented that maybe my art and my skills weren’t “ready” to create and sell calendars back in 2013. But I know I was proud of my first designs, delighted with that first calendar. Looking at it now, I can’t help but feel affection for my younger self and for those early paintings. I’m proud of myself for going ahead with a dream that must have felt daunting.

This week I pulled out my journal from around that time. One passage from November 2013 jumped out at me:

“Questions. Questions. Questions.

So, what next?

Just me, sitting in my studio. Surrounded by beauty and by joy. Ready for leaping. In the middle of leaping. Excited. Scared. Ready. Yes. I AM READY”

Then circled multiple times:

“Sometimes things take a while to come to fruition — or they take circuitous routes. Those detours, those traffic jams, those times we just plain get lost are all part of the journey.”

Eleven years later those words are still true. I’m still winding my way on a circuitous route. I can look back at my journals, my blog posts and my art and connect the dots.

My 12 calendars are a small part of a bigger picture, but they’re a record of my creative journey, too.

They tell a story of my art. Of my dreams. Of how I leaped before I was ready. Of mistakes I’ve made (so many over the years!) and how tenacious I was to keep going in spite of them.

It’s good to look back and remember how far I’ve come. It’s good to be reminded that “sometimes things take a while to come to fruition.”

I’m still dreaming.

I imagine my younger self cheering me on, reminding me to keep setting goals and working toward them, one small step at a time.

As 2024 nears its end, I hope you will take time to reflect on your journey, too. Look back at your younger self with affection. Cheer her on and let her cheer you on.

And keep dreaming, my friend. The world needs our dreams.