2022 WTW Recap
When I wrote the title just now, I typed “2021 … Recap”… and that summarizes just how quickly 2022 went by! So much has happened for my little business and dreams of growing my business, and expanding to a more experiential offering in Portugal ( see previous posts about my plans to move there in the not too distant future: Portugal Part One and Portugal Part Two)
And while some things haven’t evolved as I’d hoped, looking back at 2022, I can’t help but smile and feel grateful and excited about what will happen in 2023. Here are some things that altered my course, and/or I am proud of over the last 12 months:
In March, I decided to close my marketing consulting business, and quit my last client after a five year partnership. The goal was to make this little business my full time job and I am so proud that I finally took that leap.
My husband and I spent 3 weeks driving around central Portugal in April, on the hunt for the area we’ll try to move to and call home. We learned a ton, and narrowed things down quite a bit, so we are now looking for a house with enough land to have a small farm, somewhere between Caldas da Rainha and Santarem.
Before we flew home, Nick got COVID AND my Instagram account was hacked (read about that here), which was pretty devastating for someone who just quit her day job! I lost close to 8,000 followers, and started a whole new account before I was able to regain access to the old account. It was such a mess, I decided to start over, and it has not been easy! 8 months later, I grew my new Instagram page from zero to 5,000 which feels like quite an accomplishment, considering how hard Instagram has made it for small business to grow there.
My husband refinishing our floors last January
We did many things at home to prep for moving to Portugal: refinished the floors, repaired and painted the second floor ceiling, refinanced and re-plumbed the house and sewer lines (so glamorous), set up Portuguese bank accounts, and got tax ID numbers, hired a realtor and a lawyer (in Portugal), and started calculating a timeline and budget. I don’t talk about it much but there is so much planning happening behind the scenes to prepare for this move, and it finally feels like we are making some progress! (More on this in my next blog)
I did lots of collaborations and giveaways with some wonderful people I “met” through Instagram. So many people stepped in and helped me try to re-grow my following and connections on Instagram and I am so grateful. And I love sharing my art with people, so that was an added bonus. I truly believe art should be accessible, so I’m always experimenting with ways to do that, while still paying myself a living wage.
One of the pieces Mariana and I made together last summer.
My friend Mariana Sampaio, spent five weeks with me. It was her first visit to the US and we packed a ton in, including: her teaching two Portuguese Tile Painting workshops (one in Portland, and one in Sonoma), we created a collaborative body of work, drove to San Fransisco, flew to NYC, and started scribbling out the big ideas we have for a ceramics based business in Portugal!
I created several new designs this year: Pole Dancing Planters, Ceramic Garland, Albo style glaze for my leafy Planters, and found ways to improve existing designs and become more efficient at making them. Plus, there are some new things swirling in the background that I have yet to share!
Well Traveled Wares is bringing on some super part time help in 2023. Anna Jones- Hughes also known as Tall Grass Pottery, helped me in the studio from October through the holiday and she was so amazing, I had to keep her on board this year. Anna will be working with me a few hours a week to help me grow WTW this year.
Speaking of the holiday season… you guys really blew me away with your support! I am so thankful so many of you brought my creations into your home this year. I couldn’t do this without you!
I know there is so much more, but it’s all kind of a blur now. I’m headed back to Portugal in February for SEVEN weeks to do some house hunting, collaborating, and researching ways to bring my art and yoga retreat business to Portugal! So here’s to 2023, and manifesting great things in the year ahead.