HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS!!

What a year this has been, huh? Ups, downs, and not much in-between... seems to sum up 2010 nicely.

I have friends who've changed careers, quite unwillingly, due to "downsizing" in what is being called an "economic downturn". Our economy is failing and our elected officials, for the most part, have failed us for the past decade, at least, or longer. But, we keep pushing forward, handling all adversity with poise and lots of rum! Okay, perhaps "poise" is too strong a word, but the rum part is true!

So, with all that has headed downward there's always a point at which things begin to turn upward again, and here's to hoping 2011 is the year in which that officially happens! HIP-HIP-HURRAY for 2011!!!! (no, I'm not sucking up to 2011 in hopes of getting on it's good side)

The New Year will bring many changes, some profound, some ordinary, some just plain crappy, and some that we won't even realize for years to come - who knows which category those will fall into. BUT, and this is a rather large, I mean BIG, but: many changes will come to MacGowan's over the course of the upcoming year. One change will be short videos - I'm dreading those, in a way, as I've never produced a video, but they should be fun and "light" for the most part. Some will be "how-to", others will be "how-not-to", while others will be out-takes of screw-ups (I'm fairly certain there will be plenty of those)

Other changes will be the addition of the more complicated custom pieces I typically build, but don't normally post anywhere. These pieces range from tables, counters, cabinets, sewing tables, boxes, etc... Normally I don't photograph them, because they're going to people who've paid quite a bit for them and I want them to be able to decide who can see them and who can't. This year, however, I plan to photograph everything I build. Not everything will be posted, but some customers have complained that I haven't posted photos of their order on our website... The problem has been that I don't have a website I can actually manipulate. It was built by a professional, and it looks great, in my opinion, but it's not very user-friendly for me.

With that said, Dorothea has built a new website that is far more functional, and will allow us to post items for sale, as well as insert a gallery of custom pieces. The new website will launch soon after the New Year, but there won't be much for sale, at first, as we have sold out of just about everything I've made this year. Additions to the web-store will be unique items made especially for the videos; new-old style tankards - some of which will be far more intricate than those I current make; wooden laptop tables - built for cooling; etc, etc, etc... also, I'm thinking of a wooden computer case design that's unlike anything we've seen before. Who knows... could be anything.

Our biggest customer base will remain custom jobs, and everything else will remain unique - no matter how many are made/built.

Wow... got bit off-track! Anyway, just wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!

Back to my rum and rum cocktail!

James