This week I met up with a friend to catch up over delicious green tea, and we both marveled at what a blur this year has been. I can’t, for the life of me, remember much of it. There was the excitement of K’s launch of her first EP, of course. One of her songs from the EP, 1000 Paper Cranes, was featured on KNDD (a local radio station), and we waited with bated breath for her song debut during a segment called Locals Only. Thrilling beyond words.

A big highlight for me was working on a picture book that will be released next spring, and I’ll do some promo activities at the beginning of 2024. If you’re interested, though, Sashiko’s Stitches is available for preorder now! It’s a heart-filling story in a good way (available wherever books are sold!).

In addition to book-making, I taught a bunch of workshops and Creativebug classes (make sure to take advantage of the free ones this month here), and I’ll be teaching more next year. I adore the Creativebug staff, and every filming session in California has been enormous fun.

There were many other brazenly momentous as well as quietly significant situations in 2023. I have been wanting to tell you about an extraordinary health crisis reversal that happened — I had quite a scare in the beginning of the year, and though there IS a happy ending, I’m not sure that I have it in me to describe it in full at this juncture. It was a lot. It seems to me that the fact that I’m still here, fairly intact, is enough. A friend called me a “DIY Medical Miracle,” and I like the sound of that very much.

I have been mulling over this quote:

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final” 

― Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s a good one.

But let’s bring it back to the main point of this post: holiday tags that I designed. Every year I hope that these little freebies are helpful and that they add some festive flair during this often stressful season. I kept it simple and focused on just tags this year instead of furiously trying to add mini wrapping paper designs as I have done in the past. Simplifying has been my theme for a long while now. I just want to declutter and un-complicate life as much as possible. M and I may move next year once K is off to college, so I’ve been steadily purging. It’s really amazing how much stuff accumulates. Even more amazing is how very little I actually need. 

M occasionally gloms onto the notion of moving into a mobile home (college is expensive, ya know), and though it wouldn’t be my top choice, I do wonder what it would be like to minimize my possessions to fit into a double-wide. Or a beautiful small cabin nestled in a forest near a big lake…I wouldn’t say no to that.

Anyway, I got sidetracked again. Holiday tags! To download, click on the images below.

Please let me know if you have any issues downloading/printing them! I know that little frog is totally random, but I think it’s so cute!

As usual I’m going to take the rest of December off, and I’ll see you back here some time in January. This Christmas is extra special because I’ll be spending it with my Mama. Now that she lives in Japan, traveling has been more challenging so I haven’t seen her in person since 2019! 

Wishing you the loveliest of holidays, my friends, and let’s make The Year of the Dragon a gorgeous one! 2024, I’m ready for you!!!!