A long time ago, a good friend asked me for some advice. My reply was something along the lines of, "looking backwards while you're moving forward is only going to make you trip." That advice may have been right - or, may have been wrong. It all worked out in the best way possible for her though, so that's what is important.
Since October 2018, Rio and I have been on the road seeing some amazing things, making a lot of puzzles, and ultimately watching the company grow and grow. Even after a couple of years of making puzzles, it's still humbling to have people ordering puzzles that we are making essentially by hand of places that we've been.
Looking back at the advice above, it may have been off-target. Looking back certainly has some value, whether it's just to reminisce or as a method to improve via lessons learned... what worked, kinda worked, and flat out didn't work. We had all three of those scenarios the past year, like everybody does, I suppose.
Either way, Rio sat back and reminisced over some of our experiences over the course of the last year and thought that you might enjoy them. It's a lot of Rio, some gorgeous American landscapes, and some pretty cool puzzles, if I do say so myself.
We don't know for sure what 2020 will bring. It may be more traveling; it may be less traveling and establishing a home base; 20 or 30 acres where we can run, hunt, play, and manufacture doesn't sound too shabby. The Christmas season really pushed our limits this year as far as mobile manufacturing, but we managed to get it done with the help of a lot of coffee and some 16-18 hour days.
Some of our highlights include: making some amazing team building puzzle projects (I'll blog about that later), blurring the line between puzzles and art with an amazing 25-year anniversary puzzle for the New Mexico Bone & Joint Institute (I'll blog about that later also), setting new sales records every month and then blowing those out of the water in November and then December, seeing almost all of New Mexico, and having our puzzles pop up into the concession areas at various Texas State Parks (more to come on these also!).
All that said, here's a few excerpts from the past year. Some polished, some raw... some of Rio doing his best to liven up the same ol', "Rio sit, Rio - admire the scenery" pictures.