Here's to you, 2024!

2024. You were so incredibly exhausting emotionally.

If someone had told me in January of this year that I would quit my job by the end of the year to pursue my dreams, I would certainly have just smiled wearily. 2024 represented a breakthrough for me. There were many moments this year when I wished I could just be a child again and not have to make such important decisions. Decisions that would affect not only me, but my entire family.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think back to 2024 is not the countless wonderful moments during our vacation in Bali in May or experiences with Zoe, but the beer after the phone call with my boss in which I resigned. The relief of finally saying it out loud and no longer feeling the burden on my shoulders was just so enormous. I'll be honest: five minutes before the conversation, I was still arguing pretty hard with Felix and really wasn't sure if I would go through with it. My nerves were just completely frayed at the time.

I cried so much, doubted, questioned, was angry, and was about to burst with euphoria. This year was one of those years in which I felt like I went through a metamorphosis. Away from the security that my job offered me, into the uncertainty that comes with being self-employed. Decisions were made that took me years to make and, as I said, at the beginning of the year I didn't even know that they were slumbering inside me and finally wanted to break out.

I'm a big fan of saying that everything has its time and that certain things in life are meant to happen at exactly the right moment. For me, it took almost eight years before I had the courage to really concentrate on what I'm passionate about. Studio Wohnglück.

But I'll be honest: the first few months with just that were hard. Sickness and reduced daycare hours were the order of the day and my inner restlessness grew more and more. It was frustrating not to be able to get going as I had hoped. Apart from that, it was only when I was 100% focused on Studio Wohnglück that I realized how much there actually was to do. One thing that I had to tackle relatively quickly in this context was to create a structure for myself in order to keep an overview and set clear priorities. Because one thing was always clear to me: the moment I pick Zoe up from daycare, I want to be fully focused on her. And so I tried to create processes and fell into a bit of a hamster wheel because I only saw the job and the inner restlessness kept coming back. My problem is that I am the type of person who wants everything and immediately. Add to that my perfectionism and we have a great cocktail of things that can really get in our own way.

But that's not how it works. 

There have been many learnings in the last few months and there will be many more to come. The to-do list is long and will stay that way. But I have learned to organize my time more consciously. Don't be under any false illusions: I'm also great at procrastinating, but I'm trying to get more structure into it with weekly plans. But one important thing I've learned from the last few months: I can't do everything and not immediately. It takes time. Above all, it takes time if you want it to be good. Comparing yourself to Goliath at this point is just frustrating and brings you down. Believe me, thinking like that definitely doesn't work for me every day. Ask Felix ;) 

We definitely have some plans for Studio Wohnglück for 2025. Here, too, there were many realizations in 2024. For example: You can't die in beauty. What do I mean by that? We have a few smaller labels in our shop that we started with years ago and that we absolutely love. Great design that you can't find everywhere. But none of that is of any use to me if I don't make money from it. And so we looked at what we believe in and what we want to continue with. In this case, that means that we have to get rid of some things in the online shop to make room for new things.

The same applies to the Instagram account Studio Wohnglück. When I asked in the stories a few weeks ago why you follow us, the answer was inspiration by an absolute majority. But recently I've always been shooting stories from my everyday life with subtitles and the like. Believe me, shooting such stories and adding the subtitles is an absolute time-waster. And so it's been quieter in my stories recently because I haven't had the time for it. Don't worry, I'm not going to disappear from the scene now, but I'm going to focus more on inspiration. And there will be a lot of that in 2025. Because Felix and I have one for the coming  Our goal for the year: to close the remaining construction sites in our house. There are a few of them. They are just small things, but after more than three years, the bare light outlets, the door thresholds that have not yet been grouted and many other things are really getting on our nerves. It's definitely tingling and we finally feel like making progress here after a long time. We'll start in January by attaching stucco moldings to the ceiling, but more on that soon.

You see, my thoughts are already on the new year and I can hardly wait to start again full of energy.

For this reason, all I can say now is: Thank you 2024, you were a rollercoaster of emotions!

And I wish you a happy new year! Here's to you and thank you for joining us on our journey!

A quick note at the end: From now on, Sarah's journal will always be available as a blog post on our website. We noticed that some of you were very frustrated recently because you could only read Sarah's journal if you were signed up for the newsletter. Nevertheless, I will continue to provide you with exciting news about Studio Wohnglück in a newsletter that will hopefully appear more regularly now. Maybe you even remember my Tuesday favorites from back in the day. That's the direction we're heading in again. But stay tuned!