"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Reflecting is a sweet way I enjoy pressing pause on the busyness of life to acknowledge what has been a highlight, what's changed, what surprised me and perhaps, notice something that's not working that needs a little improvement. It's a wonderful way to slow down and spend time with the Lord to notice the small, or big, ways He is working and give Him praise, practice gratitude and maybe wrestle with some struggles.
If we had to share a tea or a coffee and you asked me to reflect on 5 highlights over the last year, here's what I would say
- From March, I started working full-time on Carlita Hearts. It has been a challenging yet rewarding last few months!
- I applied to a local market I've really wanted to be a vendor at but my application was declined for 2025, but later in the year, they accepted my application for 2026. I am beyond excited!
- Pitched to a number of local gift shops and am so proud to have wholesale relationships with 2 beautiful gift stores.
- This one's a little less glamorous but I started sending weekly newsletters to my email list. I used to send them on a monthly basis but I've enjoyed this new rhythm to send creative inspiration to spark joy in people's inboxes.
- Carlita Hearts was featured in the House and Leisure magazine in December 2025 as part of their Local Christmas Gift Guide as a collab feature with The Local Edit.
With these highlights came some challenges too - building a stable income stream, creating and sharing offers that resonate with both me and my audience and not falling into the trap of comparison. So as I reflect on what's happened, I am also looking forward to what's ahead. Considering how I can approach whatever comes my way, and prayerfully walk with the Lord in all that I do towards building Carlita Hearts. Moments of fear, of rejection, of growth are expected and they can be unsettling, but I want to reframe those moments and enjoy a different perspective instead when those moments happen.
Fun through fear
REFLECTION | As I reflect on the year, and my creative practice, I will admit that eventually towards the second half of the year, I became scared of the blank page. I share prompts, my thoughts to just create with curiosity and tried to organise my day so that I started with 10 minutes of creating, but after some time, I completely ignored it. There are a number of sketchbooks laying around my home mostly unused and I think I grew a little bit of fear to creating 'unpleasant to eye' pieces and my perfectionist side started to shout a little louder. And I listened. It almost felt like it would be unproductive if I took the time to create and it sucked. While I know it is all part of the learning, the playing and enjoying creating art for pure fun, it somehow didn't translate into many new pieces, and inspiring illustrations.
RESPONSE | With this in mind, I am going to take a cue from my children, and just create with wild abandon in an attempt to unplug from digital devices to play and have fun. Scrolling endlessly took up an unnecessary amount of time when I could have been creating, and it became quite distracting. So here are some quick ideas of what I'm going to do to make it easy and fun for myself: do timed sketches that are quick so there's no room for perfectionism, create a bingo card of things / ideas to paint and offer 1 new art print in my shop each month.
Resilience through Rejection
REFLECTION | I really put my creative studio out there in 2025 by pitching to a number of gift stores and applying for markets. Now with pitching, naturally there will be rejection that comes with it, and it was truly disappointing at times. I think I carried a little bit of that through the year, which is partly why my creative practice was impacted, but I must say, I am proud that I was able to achieve a few things - getting into 2 local gift shops (pinch me still!) and getting into Kamers for the 2026 Winelands season. While there's usually room for improvement with anything, I do think I built some resilience when I was met with rejection during the year.
RESPONSE | To not let disappointment (or even, preempt disappointment) get in the way of trying different avenues to grow Carlita Hearts. To set realistic goals and not be afraid to follow-up, and to remind myself of simple truths (it's not a "no", it's a "not yet" - or maybe, not the right fit, and it is more than okay! ; I have creative worth whether or not I get a yes or a no from this pitch).
Gratitude through growth
REFLECTION | I am so grateful to the Lord for the sweet moments I paused to take note when I ate lunch with my children after school. It seems like such a small thing but it was something I wasn't able to do when I was working full-time. And that's been the ultimate goal - to be flexible enough to spend time with my children when they come home from school and to create art and pretty things for a living. I also did the Brush to Brand course with the phenomenal Jess from Watercolour Heart and it really stretched me - I am excited to go through the course again to refresh my memory and put the learnings into practice this year.
RESPONSE | Set aside 8 weeks to go through each of the modules over again. To create some good, new-to-me products and pattern collections. I am so excited by this, I can't wait!
It has been an incredible year, and I am looking forward to see the new one unfold with the Lord. I don't need to fear uncertainty and the unknown because He knows, and He will always be with me. Moving forward and planning with a sense of gentle confidence and joy is a great place to begin the new year.
READ 2024 Reflections journal post
READ A Prayer for 2025 journal post