Scarlett Willow Designs

New Years Resolutions

2019.....Resolutions, Goals and Dreams

BlogScarlett Willow Designs1 Comment

At the beginning of every new year, the media always shouts about “Resolutions!”…..”New Year, New You!”……etc etc. Statistics show that nearly 80% fail by the second week of February! Too much pressure and perhaps too big a goal?

I prefer to set smaller goals throughout the year but my main one this year is to consume less and be more mindful of what I do consume and where it comes from. When I say “consume”, I don’t mean food…I mean in physical, material items. In particular, plastics……we’ve heard a lot over the last year or two about single use plastics and the damage they do to the environment.

I want to follow that through to my business as well. One of my suppliers is now using paper bags instead of plastic for many of their products which is fantastic. I’m going to be looking at my own packaging practices and see if there is anything further I can do.

Jewellers are very good at recycling and reusing materials, after all, gold and silver are not cheap! Scrap can be melted down either at a Refiners, where they pay for your scrap material and turn it back into sheet and wire, or many jewellers will melt the precious metal themselves to create something new.

I also don’t want to buy for the sake of buying….I’m as guilty as the next jeweller when it comes to tools but have I already got a tool that can do the job or one that can be adapted? Can I borrow the tool from a jeweller friend or buy it second-hand?

I also want to be mindful of where my materials come from, have they been mined in an ecological and ethical way? Different things but both equally as important.

So, let’s see where this takes me this year. I’m looking forward to 2019 and all the adventures it holds!




New Year, New You?

Scarlett Willow DesignsComment

January the 1st....have you set any New Year Resolutions?

Did you know that this tradition started over 4000 years ago with the Ancient Babylonians?  Their New Year didn't start in January but in Mid-March when the crops were planted nad they celebrated with a 12 day festival called Akitu.....a new King was crowned and they made promises ti their Gods that they would pay their debts and return borrowed items to their owners.  By doing this, the Gods would reward them in the coming year.

Moving forward to 46BC, the Romans changed New Years Day to January the 1st after Julius Caesar added a few more months to the calendar! January was named after a two-faced God called Janus.  Symbolically, the Romans believed that Janus could look back to the past year and towards the new year to come and so made promises of good conduct to him.

These days, we don't tend to make these promises in a religious way but more to ourselves although our success rate may be significantly different!

My New Years Resolutions this year are more like reminders.....focus on the moment.....make time for the small things....always look forward

What about you? Do you make New Years Resolutions?

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you're making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself changing yourself, changing your world. Yo.jpg