New Year's Resolutions

I always say that I am going to blog more, and I love having a slightly bigger space to tell you about the things going on at designosaur HQ and what we've been up to, but it always trails off towards the end of the year as things get BUSY and blogging is not my first love.

I know the internet is kinda anti the whole new year new me mantra, but it is a good time to stop doing the things you don't enjoy and start replacing those things with things you do enjoy, you know, whilst you've still got a pile of chocolate to help you through.

Looking back on 2016 goals...

Blog every week

Again I didn't do too badly, I blogged weekly from January until August and then didn't blog again until.... right. now. BUT I noticed more engagement, more views and I enjoyed what I was writing about more. Having a new fancy camera definitely helped.

Get to 10K instagram followers

Smashed it, I know that followers is a fairly empty number and engagement is where it is at, but it did feel good to complete a quantifiable goal and it seems that more opportunities are opening up to us because of our increased following, the year ended on 15.1K followers, HURRAH!

Work on secret plans

These changed throughout the year, but did end in moving at the end of the year and having a dedicated studio space, we've also got plans for early in January and are very pleased that although it's slow, progress is happening, and we're not standing still.

Publish our website

OK so again I worked on this all year, and with some tweaks of our branding it had several "delete everything and start again" moments. I'm all for this don't put all your eggs in one basket mantra, but we also have been incredibly lucky with the opportunities that have been offered to us through Etsy, so although our site will be a place where you can find the blog, a bit about us, information about commissions and wholesale, our main store will still be our Etsy store, as that's what works best for us, and we haven't heard any complaints from you guys!

So overall I'm going to look at this year as completely positive as we achieved a lot of goals, and plenty more things that weren't even on the agenda before they came up!

Plans for 2017

It's good to make goals, even if they change as you get closer to them, so this is the plan for this year... although as I already mentioned it's OK if they change throughout the year.

Design new socks, tights and leggings.

Jacques is going to draw something weekly (for fun)

I'll get our full new colour range up in our colour charts

We will finally publish our website

I'd love to know what your goals or plans are for the next year.

ROAR!

Karli

goodbye 2015, hello resolutions!

BE BETTER.

It struck midnight we all cheered, hugged and jumped up and born to Born Slippy (which is the ultimate NYE tune. FACT.) and then my friend turned to me and asked what my new years resolutions were for 2016.

I hadn't really thought about it at that point, and when put on the spot I said "BE BETTER". Which I still stand by, but I thought I'd be a bit more detailed here.

Let's have a quick look back at how well I did with last years resolutions, you can read that post here.

blog every week

FAILED. This is the same resolution I set the previous year too, and I did actually do 6 more blog posts than I did in 2014 BUT the content of those posts definitely improved. In 2014 I used the blog a lot more as a place to advertise upcoming #btnetsy events, designosaur new releases and things that weren't very meaty. In 2015 my content was a lot better (I know that because views and followers increased) so those 38 posts were wayyyyy better than those 32 posts in 2014.

Unfortunately as we approached our busiest time of the year, Christmas, which for us starts in August if not before, my blogging dropped off and instead I have a drafts folder with nine unfinished blog posts in... ooopppss.

do a minimum of 5 outfit posts

FAILED. I wanted to do this, and I really should be doing this as the one outfit post I did manage was my most viewed post of the year! Excuse for not doing more; not wanting to look like a wally in the street, Jacques not being able to take photos/ wanting to take photos, rain, not having a camera remote, every day being a bad hair day... the list goes on ;)

do a minimum of 5 process posts

TICK. So I left this pretty vague, I wanted to show you a bit more about the way we work, a bit more behind the scenes and explain a bit more about our design process. So I did posts on the Brighton Etsy Team Pop Up Shop, Our collaboration with Toft, Making a film with Etsy, Making a Promo Video with my friend Heather, and the making of our sterling silver dinosaurs.

#btnetsygoals

Our first meeting of the NY with the Brighton Etsy Team is always a goal setting one, we set the following goals, which are embarrassing because they should definitely not have been 2015 goals, they probably should have been 2012 ones!

make a colour chart for our listings

TICK.

make sure there are full dimensions on all of our listings

TICK.

2016 resolutions

blog every week!

I know I have now failed this resolution two years in a row but actually having the pressure of this being a resolution really helps me to try and keep on top of it.

create our new website and blog

it's currently in a hosted but not designed position I'm planning to get this up and running in the first half of the year.

make it to 10k instagram followers

currently at 8374 so this year I'm sure we can make it to 10K.

secret big plans that we will accomplish in 2016

watch this space.

be better

always be better.

Happy New Year Y'all, what are your resolutions, and as it's now the 12th, have you stuck to them?!

ROAR!

Karli

a round up 2015.

Last year's round up got such a great response we thought we'd do another one this year. This is a mix of things I did, things Jacques did and things we did as designosaur.

2015 you've been fun, we achieved a lot and we are ready for 2016, which is good as it's already the 4th ;)

January we started planning our collaboration with Toby from i Like CATS, this included lots of ice cream eating and glitter acrylic and fluff... you can see the final things here!

Went to Brussels and Bruge with my bessie, Frags.

I met Chad Dickerson (Etsy's CEO) alongside fellow team captain Louise, we had a nice chat about how we use Etsy and grilled cheese sandwiches.

I was invited to my old school in Cyprus to do a careers talk, it was really fun chatting to other scaley brats about GCSE option choosing, and the thought that there are jobs where you don't wear a uniform.

Whilst I was in Cyprus, Jacques went to Melbourne, Australia to visiting his best mates, shortly after this trip they all come home so we've had the most fun this year!

Jacques' Australian adventures prompted new designs including a Koala and a Platypus

Toby and I were invited to the UK Captains' Summit. I was awarded Team Captain 2015, we chatted lots and ate lots of tasty food too...

I posted this photo of my washing on instagram whilst I was actually on a plane to NYC. I'd signed a non-disclosure agreement and I didn't tell anyone, not even my mum!

I went to the Nasdaq Bell Ringing Ceremony for Etsy's IPO launch. It was a crazy whirlwind experience that I still don't believe actually happened.

Jacques and I made our light up necklaces which have been on the back burner for years, we LOVE them. We got Bob Prosser to make a little promo video for us and take the photos (cos he's good at dark)

We did a Supermarket Sarah wall with hello DODO. We collaborated on a bunch of new products including that ombre dinosaur design, billy the bat and we turned hello DODO's totem design into a necklace too!

hello DODO exhibited at Pick Me Up and we went along to look around. It was AWESOME! Jacques and I bought a couple of new prints too.

May Open Houses, we were part of Claire Potter's very first Studio Loo Open House. It was a massive success and there were loads of awesome designers invovled!

We went to see Jane Postletwaite's very first Brighton Fringe Show. 

We went to lots of Fringe Festival events, art exhibitions, comedy and of course the pop up bars! This photo is Jacques and my sister Amelia splashing with mud, I lost two coats to that mud. RIP coats.

Jacques' parents took us to St Malo, France where we ate lots and walked lots!

We did our very first tutorial for macrame friendship bracelets, which went into all the goody bags for...

... the biggest and best Brighton Etsy Craft Party yet!

We went to visit crafty friends Sally (hand over your fairy cakes) and Keith in Glasgow with the Brighton Crew and had ALL THE FUN. Including copious amounts of Irn Bru, Buckfast and strange breakfast foods.

We went to the very first Wild Life Festival and saw Karen.

George won us a PRIZE! We become the proud owners of the 2015 Mollie Makes Collaboration Award alongside hello DODO.

We were the Raffle Prize in the Dinosaur Disco Lucky Dip Club Box

We filmed a video with Etsy about SEO!

We did a collaboration with Toft Alpaca Shop.

We went to Brussels to visit my family again and bought some traffic lights!

We went to Luxembourg, the funniest day of Jacques life (Amelia and I got cocktails spilt all over us and Jacques couldn't stop laughing...)

We went to Shakedown with all our bestest buddies and had the most fun ever.

Jacques made a hologram thingy magigy which lasted a day until I accidently smashed it.

We filmed a promo video with my mate Heather, it's still being edited, watch this space!

I was invited to Melbourne to the Etsy Australia Captains Summit, and they printed a sticker of my FACE! I also had a week to bumble around Melbourne and it was so much fun!

We ran an workshops and set up in LICK for the #etsybloggersleeper
Photo Credit | Wish Wish Wish

I went along to the European Captains' Summit in Amsterdam with these awesome UK captains. Jacques and then had a few days in Amsterdam before the Christmas rush to eat all the food and drink all the beer!

We smashed Renegade Craft Fair again, this time with an even bigger Brighton Crewdem.

We collaborated with Fresh Stitches to create a range of rainbow-y goodness

We ran the best market Brighton has ever seen* with the Brighton Etsy Team.

Christmas happened and it was MAGICAL! We had new ROARball designs, and it was our best season yet!

We went back Cologne for the Christmas Markets before heading to our parents for some well deserved time off!

It was a year jam packed full of travel, and spur of the moment opportunities. I know the new mantra is to learnt to say no to things, but I'm very much still in the say YES to everything phase, check your inbox every five minutes and reply to every strange direct message you get, for me and in turn designosaur, doing all these things has lead to so incredible opportunities in 2015, here's to a bigger and better 2016.

Happy New Year guys,

ROAR!

Karli


*in my opinion

a round up!

A round up of my year, Jacques' year, designosaur's year and a year of Brighton Etsy all mashed together. Lots happened, it was FUN.

Jacques bought me a Neon light, it's my favourite thing ever, it made it to the list cos I've wanted one FOREVER and I didn't think I'd get one :D

Jacques and I went to Berlin, it was ALL THE FUN, it was a perfect mix of history/war history for Jacques and BRIGHT COLOURFUL RAVEY things for Karli.

I was invited to the very first Etsy International Captains Summit and did a talk in Berlin...

Credit | Silja Erg

...and Etsy enjoyed it so much they invited me back to do one in Nantes...

Credit | Secondhand Sandy

and Berlin again....

Credit | Berlino Vintage

....and then London too! I dragged Rockcakes along this time and she took a pretty bad photo of me... #awkward

I went to Zambia with my family to work with young people in the schools there. It was cold - don't let anyone fool you that Africa is always hot!

May wanted to try on my gold Triceratops!

We become TV Stars and were featured as the opening shot of the first ever Etsy UK TV advert

We were part of AT Open House, that's April wearing a Sabre Tooth Necklace!

Our 2nd #CRAFTPARTY with the Brighton Etsy Team was BIGGER and BETTER with over 100 attendees, fro-yo from Lick, smellies from LUSH and bumper goodie bags!

Yellow Bear Wares x designosaur - our knitting themed collaboration!

Hello DODO got married and we made their wedding jewellery!

We had some time off and went to EXIT Festival in Serbia and Montenegro

My parents moved to Brussels and we went to visit!

Turning on all the lights, yes we're really grown up...

We met Kirstie Allsop at The Handmade Fair

Credit | Alice Tams

We organised the first Brighton Etsy Team Market

We were featured in the Telegraph!

We designed the 3 of Diamonds for the Brighton Artists Deck of Cards Project

Brighton Etsy Team Pop Up, a real life shop, in the South Lanes open for 4 weeks with 25 awesome designers (including us!)

We were invited to be part of Etsy House - Etsy's first Pop Up shop in Covent Garden. You had to queue to get no matter what time you went! WOAH!

Credit | and smile

We created our first Sterling Silver Collection, two super cute tiny dinosaurs!

Renegade, our third Renegade! Every time we go we get to hang out with AWESOME people, this time it was Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes (Sally and Keith), Woah The Pickle (Vicky), I Like CATS (Toby) and of course hello DODO (Jam and Ali) and we all squeezed in here!

Credit | Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes

And that's it, well it isn't obviously, I had to cut a load out else you'd be reading until 2016 and be bored out of your mind. THANKS for coming along for the ride! 2014 was AWESOME and ALL THE FUN! Here's to an awesome 2015, we couldn't do it without you guys!

ROAR!

Karli (and Jacques)