Aaron Aiken

The dark brown color on this hand-dyed leather cigar case 😍 perfection. Or pretty close to it.

Assembly in progress: a 36”L x 18”W x 9”H leather bin hand dyed in lovely Chocolate. The sides are machine stitched in place, the entire bottom is hand stitched.

🪴 Working on an "action plan" of sorts.

Grateful log for Sat, 30 Mar 2024

1. A good school day with Mozzie yesterday. It was our last, but he asked if there was any way to continue. Will see what is possible.
2. Played “Life” as a family after dinner last night.
3. Up early again for another packed day. (Thanks for the nudge, @maique!)

I use the early start to make sure I have time to prepare my mind for the day ahead.

Grateful log for Fri, 29 Mar 2024

1. Up mostly successfully at 4:30, snoozed once so technically 4:38.
2. Being “realistic” with my work schedule.
3. Making really nice leather goods.

I love what I do, am grateful for the opportunity, and humbled that I have been entrusted with these gifts.

🥱 Oof. Time to start the day.

📽️ West Wing on while working. Some shows just never age. Always perfect.

😶‍🌫️ Good day up to this point, making progress on all fronts, but head is beginning to feel cloudy and I still have the evening to work though. Time for a walk and then probably making another round of coffee.

Grateful log for Thu, 28 Mar 2024

1. Today is the day I inform the property manager of my building that I will not be renewing my apartment lease.
2. new vacuum.
3. late night work sessions.

A lot of personal growth has happened here, but now it just feels like I am living with my old skins laying around, cluttering the unavailable space.

😴 And now, time for sleep!

A few things on my mind

🏃‍♂️ insane day!

Prototype 1b in progress. Just a few tweaks to make from yesterday’s prototype (1a).

Grateful log for Wed, 27 Mar 2024

1. Chirping birds woke me up this morning.
2. Custom projects - they force me out of the manufacturing process and back to where I thrive: the creative process.
3. Good evening with Mozzie yesterday.

🤫 Things have been quiet lately. Calm before the storm?

⏰ Early day tomorrow, need to save writing for later, rest is needed so that tomorrow is a success.

Custom order prototype mode today (aka shitty first draft).

👍 List for the day seems to be pretty realistic (i.e. short), which means I just might cross most of these items off before the day comes to an end!

Grateful log for Tue, 26 Mar 2024

1. A great time making dinner and then sitting down for dinner last night.
2. Have been doing really good lately with keeping healthy evening wind-down, sleep, and morning routines.
3. The sense that, for now, I “know thyself.”

I have lived, worked, slept, and stumbled around a few times, in this 700 or so square foot studio apartment for just about 3 years now and I have had to really get into my head to understand who I am, who I was, and who I want to be.

☺️ I love how exhausting a full day is! Sleep at the end of such a day is a sweet reward.

Grateful log for Mon, 25 Mar 2024

1. Excellent sleep
2. Dinners planned for the week
3. A new week

I love to work with my hands. Handcrafts are part of my life, a part of who I am, a part of how I have been made, and so preparing a meal is just that: handcrafts in the kitchen.

Grateful log for Sun, 24 Mar 2024

1. happening upon solutions
2. the longer days and evening walks
3. remembering

I remember scenes of life scattered throughout the last twenty years but calling to mind anything specific (again, related to family life almost exclusively) is almost impossible for me to do.

🥱 Oof. The Sunday afternoon crash is real.

🍷 Good wine. Writing a letter I've been putting off for too long.

Sampling the Easter dinner wine, if I must 🙂