Season's Greetings - a long rambling post to sign off 2014!

A long rambly post from me to sign off 2014! WARNING: contains reminiscence, tons of writing and LOADS of self-imploding questions.

Season's Greetings everyone!

It feels like a long time since I've hopped on this blog... and I guess what better time than two days before Christmas when I obviously have NOTHING else to do. Things have finally started to slow down after the mad rush of Christmas orders I had via my online shopping platforms. It's been crazy busy. In a good way. And I will say that fulfilling orders especially when you are at the mercy of the postal system can be a rather nerve wrecking experience. I have learnt a lot in these last few months and I have put in so much time and effort into every order with little extras and thank you notes - so I'm definitely expecting some kind of epic karma for 2015.

I was thinking the other day about how cool it is to know that on Christmas day there will be people all over the world opening something from under the Christmas tree that I have made. Weird. And awesome. But mainly weird.

Warren's entire family is over here for Christmas this year - so we will be celebrating "FULL DYER" style. I am already the favourite daughter-in-law, but I have been practicing my Christmas jokes just in case I need to whip one out at the dinner table. We are heading off skiing shortly after Christmas - and if you have read about my previous skiing experiences you will know JUST HOW EXCITED I AM ABOUT IT. On the plus side, I have heard that "apres ski" which is code for "let's get sloshed" is really rather good. Husband has told me he will teach me how to ski - so by January 15, we will probably be divorced. Will keep you posted.

This time of year is always super reminiscy (made that word up) I guess people love looking back and taking stock of the year that has passed. So much has happened this year and I can feel big, huge massive changes coming. Changes in the work that I do, changes in the spaces that I occupy online, changes in my focus and direction in my life.

Over this year, Warren and I celebrated our first year anniversary (We are nearly ready to celebrate our SECOND anniversary! Can you even believe it?! On a side note, Warren has asked for "nose hair trimmers" for Christmas. I mean... could we BE any more married?)

We also met my folks over in Spain, I launched my shop on Not on the High Street, I've had some amazing collaboration opportunities come my way: I've designed posters, illustrated cards, and created bespoke graphics, logos and artworks, my work and products have been sent across the globe: Australia to New York, London, to South Africa, Canada to Germany. I'm so thankful! We've also been out to South Africa for friends weddings, I gave a talk at The Ruby Orchard, I've met some of the most amazing blogging friends, one of my products was featured in The Christmas catalogue. And, I got into yoga.

REALLY into yoga.

In fact, SO into yoga that starting January 9th next year I am starting my yoga teacher training with Yoga London.

I can. NOT. wait.
(read this post)

I feel like there are a LOT of things that have already been changing for me - and I have no doubt a LOT of things that will change even more during this course. One of the things that has been on the back of my mind is the direction of this blog, the vibe of indieBerries and how this all fits into the new direction of yoga that my life is pulling towards.

This blog post and the "where I am going with my online life?!" has been swimming around in my head for a long time now and usually it just ends in self-imploding questions because I'm still not really sure how to fit everything together and I don't have all the answers yet. But it's Christmas so what better time to drop some bauble-bombs on the crowd?

I have so many unanswered questions about indieBerries and where it is going and how it fits together with Ché as a yoga teacher. I started indieBerries when I was 24 - which is about 5 years ago - a lot has happened since then: I quit my job, I backpacked Asia, I moved home, I got engaged, I finished my PGCE, I lived in limbo, I got married, I moved to London, I changed to a new blogging platform, I launched my guestbook website, I opened online stores.

I know myself much more now than I ever have before.

But, because of knowing myself so much more now - it has brought with it so many new questions about where I am and what I'm doing -

Have I outgrown indieBerries? Has it outgrown me? Does yoga fit with the brand of indieBerries as it exists now? Should I keep indieBerries as a purely portfolio platform showcasing my illustration and design work? Should I be creating only products that fit with the more yoga brand? Does this shift alienate people who have followed indieBerries from the beginning? Or does it open it up for an entire new and exciting new readership? What is it about indieBerries that people have chosen to follow? Is it the humour and cartoons (if so, does the content really matter anyway)? Or is it the content and the person that people have chosen to check in with every day? Do I create a new blog with a yoga focus, leaving indieBerries as I mentioned above? If so, then where do I put the funny stories between Warren and I? Where do I share the personal bits and pieces? Do I just leave that out to move forward? indieBerries has become much more of a website of late and I miss blogging for blogging's sake. It feels like I keep getting caught up on the logistics of it all. Do I need to convert my indieBerries Facebook page to something new? What do I do with my twitter account? How can I prevent myself from losing followers from over the years? If I'm changing direction slightly... does it even really matter?

At the end of the day I am still me. I still have the same humour, the same wit and the same quirky illustration vibes. And i'm just figuring out a way to try bring it all together given the new direction that I feel my life is going. For those of you who follow my yoga instagram account (@indieyogalife) you may have seen a new little cartoon creation "Yogi Jade" with the hashtag #thisisyogijade and I guess that is my first testing-the-waters attempt at trying to do that. We'll see how it goes. Usually these kinds of questions would freak me the figgy-pudding out - but I'm not really that anxious about it at all - I don't have all the answers and I'm still undecided/unsure/nervous about how it's all going to pan out - but I'm excited. SO. SO EXCITED.

I'll be taking this little time off blogging from now until the first week of January - to give myself a little time to plot through all these thoughts and ideas. I guess that my time on top of the ski slopes are going to be filled with introspective soul-searching and hopefully A-HA moments. When they occur, I'll be sure to tweet Oprah.

If anyone reading this has any ideas, comments or suggestions that they have about the direction of indieBerries, Yoga, new platforms, social media integration and blending it all together - I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below :)

I know the year to come is going to be absolutely awesome and there are going to be some big exciting changes around here and I can't wait to share them all with you! For now though... it's back onto the pile of Christmas wrapping.

Living in the present moment an' all.
#sorrynotsorry

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Happy Festive Season to ALL of you reading this!
Thank you for all the love, support and awesomeness you've shown me this year -
so eternally grateful for all of you! Thank you.

I look forward to catching up with you all in the New Year!

xxxx