This month has been a true new start! New blog design, (still) new relationship, new vision for the blog, new career opportunities, and a new sense of boundaries. My saying no has been paying off!! Even though I feel like a huge meanie when I do it, I’ve yet to feel bad for too long and I’ve been much happier over-all getting to focus on fewer things. This January I’ve enjoyed taking the time to escape. I went kayaking and camping one weekend and it was amazing to be in nature and to get away from real life for a bit. Then, when I was off to Alt Summit it was an entirely different kind of escape tactic. I’m filled to the brim with information about this space, my thesis, and new possibilities of where I want to head in the future. This month was also the start of my new quarter, and I’ve really been enjoying my typeface design class. It’s awesome to take the knowledge I’ve been gathering from my lettering studies and put it towards a new facet of typography. By the end of this quarter I’ll have a real-life working typeable typeface! I’m getting crazy giddy just thinking about it. You all know I have issues.

I’ve really missed this. New year, and a new vow to stay on top of my game, right?

While my post-Alt post will be up next week, one of the main things I’ve taken from my time away is that I need time to reflect. I’m so go-go-go all the time that I rarely take the time to sit back and digest everything that’s going on around me. Along with my monthly reviews, I’m going to be making this space into a more reflective spot—forcing myself to take the time and really take into account everything that I’m learning day by day. I’m always amazed at the ideas and the insight I find from taking that time (and also when I get your input on top of it all!), so why does it always get pushed to the side to fit in an extra hour of the Beverly Hills Housewives? Yeah, yeah, I know—tell me about it!  I’d love to know: how do you reflect? I’m sure any tactics you can share would be amazing to tuck away for future use!

Here’s a big cheers to a great start to the year and to keeping it all going into the second month! And, as always, you can find more behind-the-scenes happenings by following pinegateroad on instagram!