This year, my wife and I decided to make many of the gifts we gave for Christmas. Me, having a bunch of time off from working, and Lindsey, raising a beautiful one-year-old who enjoys playing with necklaces and her dog, had plenty of time to dive into gifts. It’s always extremely satisfying to be able to tell someone, “we made that for you” because it shows intent, love, and a deeper thought about something they might like.
I got to dive into some design work I’d never had a chance to do before. I opened up Inkscape for the first time and taught myself some of the basics of vector editing. It started with creating a new website for my father-in-law, Dave, and then bled over into making custom labels for our homemade vanilla and lemon extracts.
We also chose to take some new photos of our daughter to give to family and friends. Lindsey is an amazing photographer and has a great eye for capturing something with a lens.
The last two months have been rough. There are plenty of bright spots, though, that remind me to be thankful even when things don’t follow the plan. This fall was definitely out of the scope of the plan, but I’ve enjoyed the time regardless of the circumstances. Make sure you spend your time doing things worthwhile.