It really isn't good to miss the weekly update. Not because it shows, but because there really is something useful about journaling the week in business that just went by. Especially as a small, start-up firm. So this week we've skipped a few since the last update. Sorry about that.

I've been out of the studio a lot lately. Not easily done. Not always my first choice to be absent but for various reasons it has had to be. However, lots has been happening without me. Which I'll try not to read anything into. A new batch of Christmas cards were prepared and sent out in batches this week. I wasn't able to get photos of the making of them. But I'm sure you can make the mental picture of two people putting together these cards over a couple of days, which involved scoring and folding by hand, carefully placed tiny paper cuts, a stainless steel photo-etched ornament, ribbon, and a little message from the studio. All placed in a slender red envelope, a sticker for a label and a postage stamp to warrant its passage to the address on the label.

I don't know if we'll have some extra available online in the New Year. If we don't, once I put photos up, and you like 'em, you can always hound us to make some more and see if that works.

So the Holidays have infected us and we're definitely closing resolutely for several weeks. I've not been fortunate enough to dodge the seasonal flu. But I'm very pleased it will be long gone before I get my three weeks off. We decided to close the office for two and a half weeks this year. Because without enforcing a vacation, we always end up working through the Christmas and New Year, taking advantage of the time away from daily business demands and being able to work uninterrupted. However, when things pick back up, you never end up making time for that vacation you promised yourself later in the year, in order to rejuvenate and give back to yourself, and another year passes. So this year, we told clients and collaborators we'd be closed for several weeks. And so far haven't felt guilty for doing so. Then we've decided to come back to work on Friday 8th of January. Not because I'm being mean by not letting people have another full week off, but there's always that re-entry into work-life that takes a bit of time. Some paper shuffling. Answering the emails you didn't want to do by iPhone or Blackberry. Re-acquainting yourself with projects and their status and opening the mounds of post. It seemed to me, that if we had one short "re-entry day", before the first full week of the year, with a weekend in between, we'd have the right kind of re-immersion into the hustle and busy-ness of the studio. So I'll let you know how it goes. I'm hoping it is a good idea, and a small gesture into making the right kind of decisions that helps us take better care of ourselves.

I have to mention Weightshift again to thank them for the story on their site of working with us. I'm hoping in the New Year we get another chance to collaborate and share that too.

And in an unrelated note, I very much enjoyed this concept video on the future of the magazine from BERG called Mag+. And so I wanted to share it as I thought of it.