Me holding a custom pet portrait, the last one I worked on in 2024!
Do you pick out a word for your year? It’s like a mantra you can repeat throughout the 12 months. For 2025, my word is consistent. I selected it, partly, because I’ve been largely inconsistent with this blog for the past couple of years. It’s not a singular reason; life gets in the way! You know the phrase, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is a mess”? That’s how it feels a lot of the time.
In an effort to live my word of the year, I am back. For real, this time. (How many times have I said that? Sheesh!) I’ve got an editorial calendar worked up; it’s meager right now, but I plan to grow it once I am more consistent. I’ve got a redesign in the works, which hasn’t happened for at least three or four years.
2024 was a big year for me…
My book, Threads of Treasure, was published. After two years of planning, ICON12 happened. My pal Melissa and I hosted our third Camp Craftaway—our largest yet. (And it’s only growing!). I created DIY embroidery kits and needle minders and sold them at craft markets.
… but I felt like something was missing.
A core part of my identity is this blog. A podcast episode where I talked to Abby at Craft Industry Alliance made me particularly wistful. I started Brown Paper Bag in the early 2010s (aka my early 20s) when blogging felt magical and the internet was actually fun. (I know I sound like old man yells at cloud, but it’s true!!) Brown Paper Bag has been with me through grad school in Baltimore, through two large moves (to Minneapolis and then Seattle, where I live now), and much more. It’s given me incredible opportunities over the years.
In the walled gardens of big tech and endless scroll newsfeeds, websites are still important. Human curation is important, especially in the age of AI. It’s why it has still gnawed at me for so long to return to this place. Still paying for hosting, still renewing the domain every year.
The plan is to write in Brown Paper Bag once a week, on Wednesdays, for a while, and see how that goes. Then, it’s up from there.
There are other ways to find me!
I write in my newsletter, Orts, which you can subscribe to here. It’s published on Fridays. I stopped tweeting in 2016 and officially deactivated my Twitter in November 2024, so now I’m on Bluesky, where I’m @brwnpaperbag.com.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. I’ll see you here next week.