2025 Creative Business Reflections: Art, Goals, Burnout, and Looking Forward
Why I Hesitated to Write this Blog
As I have been wrapping up the end of the year with final blog posts, newsletters, and social media posts, I almost decided to skip my end of year reflections. On initial review, I have been feeling a bit like I missed the mark this year, like I did not live up to my word of the year, courage, and the big goals I set at the beginning of the year felt largely unaccomplished.
Organizing artwork from 2025.
But this blog is about documenting the journey more than anything. The ups and the downs, the successes, the failures, the slow grind of building a creative business on the side. And do not be mistaken, it is a grind. While I am trying, and sometimes failing, to hustle in a sustainable way, this creative business still means that most days I come home from my day job and try to spend an hour or two in the studio. Most weekends, you’ll find me spending multiple hours painting, drafting and editing blogs, working on pattern designs, and photographing and editing content for social media. Initial reservations aside, I decided that this is a meaningful exercise that I do each year, so I set some time aside to take a focused look at the past year to see what I actually accomplished.
This is Part 1 of a four part series on annual planning for 2026.
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Looking Back at My 2025 Goals
Off the cuff, if you were to ask me whether I achieved my goals for 2025, my initial answer would be “not really.” Thoughts weighing heavy are the fact that one of my major goals was to redo my website, which I never even started. I also had a major period of burnout this summer, where I created virtually nothing and even took a complete social media break from June through most of August. However, once I went back and actually looked at the goals I set for this year, my progress wasn’t as bad as I thought.
My 2025 Goals:
Goal: Create a new fabric collection for Spoonflower.
I did not create a full collection on Spoonflower, but I did continue to develop my surface pattern design skills. In the early part of the year, when motivation was still high, I created patterns and submitted them for four Spoonflower design challenges: a 2025 calendar tea towel, my sketchy trees and earthy pebbles patterns for wallpaper challenges and my first ever paisley design for fabric. Once my burnout passed at the end of the summer, I reengaged with my surface design membership Pattern+, and I created three collections as part of their monthly design brief challenges. These collections are not on Spoonflower yet as I wait to receive feedback on them, but they will be, probably in early 2026. More importantly, I have started what I hope is a sustainable rhythm of bouncing between painting and pattern design this fall that I hope I can maintain in 2026.
Goal: Redesign my website to reflect who I am as an artist and creator today.
This one didn’t get off the ground at all. While I am a bit disappointed in myself, I’m choosing to believe that the universe didn’t think it was the right time and that I needed to get through this year to figure out what exactly those improvements and changes might be.
Goal: Build out my Etsy shop and experiment with different artwork and products.
I launched my Etsy shop at the end of 2024. I see Etsy as a way to get used to putting my original work up for sale and a way to eventually experiment with art prints and products. In 2024, I sold two paintings. In 2025, I sold thirteen! I even experimented with my first digital download of a climbing themed Valentine’s Day card. These numbers may seem small, but everybody has to start somewhere.
Goal: Build out my artist network and connect with my local art community through things like memberships and opportunities to show my work in person.
This was another goal that I did not put much effort into, but I did maintain my Design Divas meetings with the women from my 2024 Immersion study group and we have even reorganized our meeting into a mastermind format, which has been a radical improvement. My surface pattern design membership with Bonnie Christine went through a major rebrand from Flourish to Pattern+ in 2025. Initially, I was extremely overwhelmed by the new format of the membership, and felt like it was designed for a much more established designer than myself. But in early September, when I was finally in the mood to create again after a busy summer, I made the decision to get as much out of the membership by the end of my membership year (May 2026) and to adopt the motto of “why not me?” I still feel like I am the least experienced person in the room most days, but I have created three new collections as a part of the membership’s design challenges, so I am making steady progress.
How I Showed Courage
(Even if it Wasn’t What I Expected)
My word for 2025 was courage. Again, my initial thoughts as I debated writing this reflections blog was that I did not end up having very much courage in 2025. I went back to that January 2025 blog post to review the things I thought I would need to do in 2025 to demonstrate courage:
Try more things. Things I tried in 2025:
Spoonflower design challenges
Etsy digital download
Show my art more than I ever have in the past.
Despite a period of burnout, I posted regularly on my blog, Instagram, and for my newsletter subscribers
Show up in person, both online and offline.
I attended and contributed Design Divas mastermind
Submitting work for feedback in my Pattern+ membership community
Experiment.
I created pattern collections for Pattern+ design briefs that were outside my comfort zone and personal style.
I completed my first ever 100 Day Project
I started painting abstract moody landscapes that I see as being a major part of my early 2026 painting.
Fail and fail often as I find out what works best for me.
In 2025, I had to embrace slow progress. January through March I was intensely productive: painting, designing patterns, and full of energy to accomplish goals. With hindsight, I can now see that by late spring I was already starting to get worn down, and by mid-June I completely hit a wall, so much so that I stopped painting entirely and even stopped showing up on social media. While my art practice took a back seat, life kept on turning:
Vasya and I moved, leaving our old apartment after being there nearly nine years.
Work was overwhelming with staffing issues and the usual craziness of summer.
I was training for two major bike events that left me physically tired.
These three things meant that I needed to step back completely from being creative. It took me until September to feel like creating anything again. I think I demonstrated courage in two very specific ways.
I found the courage to show up after a break.
It was hard to get back into a creative rhythm again. I had a new studio space (an entire room with a door) that I wasn’t entirely comfortable in yet. Who knew I would be missing my little table set up in the living room so much? But I took small steps to reorganize my supplies. I experimented with supplies I never use (charcoal and pastels) and eventually I missed my watercolor paints enough to try again. The same was true with designing patterns. I hadn’t touched Adobe Illustrator for probably six months, but I decided to adopt the mantra of “why not me?” I may still feel inexperienced. I may still be learning. But slow progress is progress nonetheless, so I decided to just show up and try. And the results have been worth it.
I found the courage to just let the second half of the year unfold as it was going to.
I think the year has felt so awkward because I am in a period of growth and transitions. I have felt a burst of creativity this fall, specifically while working with my Gansai Tambi Graphite watercolor paints to create very loose and moody landscapes. My artwork has changed a lot this year. I have felt less inclined to follow reference photos and more inclined to experiment and just see what happens. This means that I have created about ten mediocre paintings for each one that I really like. I am starting to think differently about my art. I’m considering my small business in new ways and dreaming about what kind of creative endeavor I am trying to build. If you asked me two years ago, where I thought this could go, my vision would be very different from the one that I have now. I ended out 2025 in a very different spot than I thought I was, but I heard this interesting perspective on a podcast recently: Maybe I have outgrown the vision that I had for myself in January 2025. I’m looking forward to how my plans for January 2026 will play out in the coming year.
2025 Milestones at a Glance
Completed a 100 Day Project of 100 tiny landscape drawings.
Completed over 60 pieces of artwork.
Created 20 new patterns, including three mini collections.
Completed 13 sales on Etsy.
Published 18 blog posts.
Sent 13 newsletters.
Too many Instagram and Pinterest posts to count.
What I’m Carrying into 2026
Of course, reflecting on 2025 makes me start thinking about what I want 2026 to feel like. More than anything, I want to be better about my systems. I want creativity - painting and pattern design - to be where I spend most of my time each week, because everything else depends on that. I also do not want to hit the level of burnout I hit last summer. Some of that burnout was circumstantial, but I tend to push really hard all the time and I need to be better at fitting in periods of rest and blank space to just see what happens. Of course, I wouldn’t be me without already having some goals that I am bouncing around for 2026:
I’d like to actually get my website updated. I feel like I have a better understanding of what I want it to look like and what I want it to say.
I want to create two organized painting collections in 2026. I anticipate continuing my moody landscapes for a spring release and then I want to do something bright and summery to release in the fall.
I plan to take Immersion again in 2026. I can take the course at a discount and I feel like I want the refresher to build on my technical skills, but I have wanted to create a climbing-themed collection since I started learning about pattern design and I think taking the course will give me the focused time and feedback to do that collection really well.
While I was hesitant to do my typical reflections process, I’m glad I did. It reminded me that I accomplished more than I was giving myself credit for and that it’s important to celebrate those wins even if they are not what you expected. And, it serves as an important starting point for planning 2026.
What are your successes from the year?
Let me know in the comments below! And follow me over on Instagram to see what 2026 has in store for me.
Need help getting started with your own reflections on the year? Start with these journal prompts:
List all of your accomplishments from the past year. What are you most proud of? When were you the most happy or feel the most at peace?
What sucked? What was something you really wished had happened, but didn’t? Why didn’t it happen?
Imagine yourself at the end of 2026. How do you want to feel?
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Also on the Blog Courage: My Word for 2025
Podcast Recommendation: The Year Didn’t Fail You. You Just Outgrew the Version of You Who Planned it. (The Art Coaching Club)
Coming Soon Part 2 Show Your Face: Why Visibility is my Word of the Year for 2026.
Coming Soon Part 3 How I Used ChatGTP to Create My Five Year Plan
Coming Soon Part 4 From Vision to Action: How I Planned My 2026 Year Using ChatGPT
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Grab my free toolkit to kick start your annual planning process. Inside you’ll find:
My Yearly Plan: A guide to help you reflect and identify priorities
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