Recapping and remembering
Happy New Year! Is it too late to say that? Ah, well. I thought it would be fun, in this first post of 2025, to take a look at my top 10 bestsellers from last year. While I'm at it, I'll share a short recap of 2024.
Market Business
I planned on doing a handful of markets in 2024 so I could prioritize other tasks, like pursuing wholesale accounts or designing patterns. I made a list in January, but, for one reason or another, my list kept growing. Since doing my first market as Lucky Leaf in 2022, I've been conflicted about limiting myself in this area of my business. Planning and prepping for markets takes a lot more time, money, energy, and mental fortitude than you might expect. On the one hand: if a market goes well, I feel elated for weeks and am so encouraged! On the other hand, if it ain't so good, it can feel like the end of the world.
I love meeting new people and exploring new places, so doing live events aligns with my personality in many ways, but I did learn some lessons last year about what myself and my business can handle. An example: At the Midway Fall Festival, which was awesome in 2023, I got sick from the heat and had to leave my tent unattended for hours (Heat exhaustion? Maybe. Whatever it was, I felt so bad that I considered curling up under my table and hiding. Have you ever used a port-a-potty in AUGUST? It's the stuff of nightmares). I couldn't catch a shuttle to my car to go home, and I felt so bad that I knew I couldn't walk to the vendor parking lot, so I spent most of the afternoon ducking in and out of nearby bookstores to try to cool off chug water, and nibble on a salty pretzel that I carried around in a folded paper plate until it had hardened to pretzel-plaster. Bonus: the combination of extreme heat and humidity (of course it rained in the morning and afternoon) ruined almost 80 of the bookmarks that I had stored in containers in a cart under my tent. I woke up with a lingering headache the next morning and decided that returning for day two might be a bad idea, so I got out of bed, drove to Midway at 6:30am, and packed up my tent and booth before any other vendors arrived, sending an apologetic email to the event coordinator to explain myself. At least now I know what to look for when I'm considering whether to apply to markets. "Oh, it's outdoors? Can't do it."
Pictured (from L to R): Louisville Book Festival in October and Lavender Festival in June. And my mom, top Right!
This year, despite the internal conflict, I'm limiting myself to three or four markets total, which makes it so much easier to add goals and plan my calendar so I can strategically launch new products (I am a "deadlines or die" person). First up is the Kentucky Castle's Galentine's Market from February 8th-9th. Find tickets at the link below. It's my first Galentine's, and I am so pumped! I will be debuting two new cards along with some new notepads, notebooks, bookmarks, and a special sketchbook/journal combo that I cannot wait to share with y'all. More on all that soon!
The Midway festival aside, I will say that, overall, the positive experiences of markets have outweighed the negatives. If I try to name them all, this post might not end, but let's try a quick summary.
I've met some of my best customers at markets, and I genuinely love getting to talk books with people and hearing their recommendations.
They're incredibly useful in testing/launching new products and getting opinions. What better way to see what people are interested in than seeing their reactions in real time?
I can tinker with my booth setup and displays to see what works best. And y'all do supply me with some wonderful product ideas.
Meeting and chatting with other vendors and getting questions answered/getting advice has been so helpful, too.
Job Business
I started a new marketing job last July that I absolutely love. I'm continuously tweaking my schedule to accommodate both that job and this one (and, you know, laundry). Time management is not my strong suit, but I'm improving. Last year, I successfully created some of the products I'd been dreaming about for months, like to-do list notepads, a fanny pack, more coasters and tea towel designs, and tote bags, along with 19 new bookmark designs, and some new cards, stickers, and notebooks. I wanted to launch bookplates, but I encountered some production-related issues that I'm still working through, so I had to move them to the back-burner for now. Overall, I reached the end of 2024 in a much more hopeful place than the year previously.
Pictured: Me! And some views of Black Swan Books, my favorite local used bookstore
Business Business
Last part of the quick recap: expanding into new stores! In 2024, I continued wholesale relationships with Poor Richard's (Frankfort), Kentucky Soaps & Such (Stanford), and Coffee Times (Lexington). I also made it into some new stores; and I did my first out-of-state order for The Tea & Ink Society in Alabama! You can now also find Lucky Leaf bookmarks, stickers, and/or greeting cards at: The Taleless Dog (Berea); The Roost Latonia (Covington); and Carmichael's (Louisville)!
If you get a chance to visit any of these places, you should--they're all wonderful and unique and special, as local shops should be. I think it would be best to dedicate a separate post to these shops, because, of course, I'm loquacious as ever.
Top 10 Business
Now, back to the top 10. FINALLY. I'm surprised by some of the products that showed up on this list, and it's quite fun to see what people gravitate towards. I'll list them first and then I'll tell you a little bit about them, because I haven't shared much of the stories behind why I draw what I draw yet (and my sister tells me that the internet appreciates such information.)
Top 10 (by category):
C. S. Lewis Quote Bookmark
Red & Yellow Folk Flower Bookmark
Fuchsia Bookmark
Reading Reasons Bookmark
Berries Bookmark
Tolkien Bookmark
Spill the Tea Bookmark
Floral Kentucky Sticker
Boot Sticker
Gold Foil Kentucky Greeting Card
The top three bookmark bestsellers would have been a total surprise to me except that they were chosen for a Tea & Ink Society seasonal reading box. Thank you, Elsie! ❤️ Elsie gave me specific reasons behind each bookmark she chose, which made my inner nerd so elated. So, it was a first-time collaboration with a client and first time inclusion in a subscription box! Learn more about Tea & Ink Society here: https://teaandinksociety.com/.
The Red & Yellow Folk Flower bookmark's popularity this year was a total surprise to me. Not only did it sell to bookstores, it sold well at markets, too. I drew this design in 2022, but I updated it in 2023, adding a black border and adjusting the background color a little. I've recently adapted the design into a pattern that will soon debut on journals!
C. S. Lewis Quote Bookmark: I first saw this quote years ago in the email signature of a librarian and never forgot it. I drew the teacup stack first, based on a set of Haviland Limoges porcelain cups from the late 1800s that someone was trying to sell on Etsy, changing the design to peonies because I'm obsessed with peonies. I toyed with different color variations before settling on this one, and then I thought: this is perfect for that Lewis quote! So voila!
Fuchsia Bookmark: These are some of the most beautiful plants I've ever seen. I took some photos of them at a greenhouse in Frankfort and used those shots along with some Pinterest photos as the reference for this design. But I have so many sketches of fuchsia flowers...I doubt this will be the last time you see them.
Berries Bookmark: Strawberries are forever, what can I say?! According to my iPad stats, this pattern took about 6 hours to draw after I'd drawn the basic pattern elements in my sketchbook. I took inspiration from an embroidery pattern I saw on Pinterest (Briggs & Co transferring paper; these were popular in the late 1800s-early 1900s).
Reading Reasons: I originally drew this design during lockdown, when I was bored out of my mind and was drawing dozens of bookmarks by hand and then laminating them (evidence below). I made some improvements as I re-drew it on my iPad, including adding a tiny version of the teacup that's on the Spill the Tea bookmark. Did you notice it? The teacup is based on a photo of a hand-painted Paragon cup (made in England in the 1930s-40s) I found on Pinterest that runs for about $100 online. Click the arrow on the gallery below to see the original teacup. I can't collect teacups myself (nowhere to put them...and also...the prices!), so I collect pictures of them to draw later. It's a kind of collecting, no?
J.R.R. Tolkien Quote Bookmark: When it comes to bookish quotes, there are so many to choose from that I find it overwhelming. But I thought that, since I already had the Lewis quote on a bookmark, finding a contemporary of his to complement it would be nice. My younger sister gave me the idea to use this quote, as she is an avid LOTR fan. I finally read the books last year and absolutely loved them. I thought my Monarch drawing was an apt visual for this quote (I also had no desire to draw Frodo).
Spill the Tea Bookmark: The Paragon-style teacup returns! I like matching sets, and since I had already designed one teacup pattern, I thought it couldn't hurt to make a few more. This little teacup pattern was tough to get right, but I really like the contrast between the dark cup and the light background. Fun fact: when I create a patterned bookmark, I often draw a contrasting pattern for the background, because why not overcomplicate things?
When it comes to the other bestsellers, I wasn't surprised that the Gold Foil Floral Kentucky Greeting Card and matching sticker made the top 10. I am based in Kentucky, after all!
The boot design's success has been a pleasant surprise. My husband and I watched a video about Belgian painter René Magritte one night, and this is my homage to Magritte's "The Treachery of Images." I know, I know, we're nerds 🤓 I don't own any cowgirl boots, but I started doing some research and realized they can be quite beautiful! I put my spin on a vintage pair of boots to make this design. The boot will be appearing on some new products in February, so stay tuned.
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