GOAL #1 – RUN A HALF MARATHON

I’ve always been interested in running a marathon, but the sheer length seemed too daunting to me. And the possible damage to joints and muscles makes it a little less attractive to me at this point. However, before the whole appendix issue, I was running a solid 4.5 miles a day, which while it’s not much compared to the 13.1 mile distance of a half marathon, was a good start for distance running, I think.

I’ve caved and bought myself a treadmill, so I’ve already been starting to run again. Once I get back from my vacation at the end of March, I plan to start using the Runner’s World training guide to dictate my runs and hopefully increase my speed a bit. Right now, I’m just focusing on being able to run a steady pace for a good length of time, since it’s been so long.

My friends and I are training for the half of The Manitoba Marathon. It being in June should give us a lot of time to work on it. My goal is not only to finish but to have a fairly respectable time (basically, no walking), so I can keep up with my longer-legged friends.

GOAL #2 – LEARN SCREEN PRINTING TECHNIQUES

Yes, courtesy of the lovely Nik, the much coveted Yudu is now mine. Now I just need to clear out the “spare-spare room” and learn how to use it. This may take some time, due to the amount of work that room needs, but it will get done.

GOAL #3 – MAKE AND SELL MY OWN PRODUCTS

Admittedly, this ties in with Goal #2, since I’ll mostly be producing prints and possibly cloth goods (t-shirts, tea towels, aprons, etc.) with the Yudu. But it’s a goal of mine to be selling my own merchandise. I love working with Cardstore and iStockphoto, as well as the independents that carry products with my illustrations, but I’d like to be able to conceive of and finish something that’s 100% Sam. And obviously, I’d also like to hang onto 100% of the profits.

Well, I have more minor goals to add to these, but let’s not go nuts here. These are the ones I feel require the most focus and foresight, so I’ll try to commit to these. Would love to know what other people have planned for 2010!

I’ve been wanting to make and sell my own illustration-based products for some time but it seems that all the online companies and people that do it offer either poor quality products or take too much of a cut for it to be profitable to me.  And I know that screen printing can be done with fairly minimal supplies, but I’m not really interested in the mess and sourcing of materials.

Enter the Yudu. A screen printing machine that does prints up to 11×14″ in size, which is definitely a decent starting point for a newbie like me. It prints on fabric, paper, wood with no problem at all (or so it seems). The website makes it look like it’s aimed at younger people but all the reviews I’ve seen for the machine have been from adults, so I think it’s a fairly professional piece of machinery. I think this might be a good starting out point for me and I could finally start that Etsy shop that I’ve had an account for forever. I’ve really been wanting to do a line of prints and home goods and people have suggested it to me as well, so I know there would be some interest out there for the products.

The only issue is that the machine is puh-ricey, it goes for around $400 at Michaels. I suppose one could use those coupons from the flyers, and I did see it on sale for only $300 a few weeks back (actually it is on sale this week, according to their flyer). I’d go out and get it, but due to my the appendix bursting and the complications that came with it, I’m only just recovering on the money front right now.

So I guess I’ll just have to have this blog post hinting about what a great Christmas gift this would make. *nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more *

Oh, and do yourself a favour and watch the product video on the link above, it’s hilariously bad.