A Reflection on 2025
As this year draws to a close, I find myself pressing toward 2026 with big ambitions and even bigger dreams—continuing the pursuit of the reason we moved back to the UK at the end of 2023.
But amidst all the impossibilities life has thrown my way over the past two years, I wanted to give myself permission to pause. To take a moment in this Christmas season and reflect. To look back at where I was this time last year, and at what has been achieved since.
It’s refreshing to do that. Because so often, when we’re focused on the future and where we want to be, we forget just how far we’ve already come.
Leaving California in December 2023 was a huge step for me and my family. The transition back to the UK has not been easy—there have been challenges in many forms—but I’ve remained persistent and optimistic. I take courage from the dreams I once made real during the ten years I lived in California, reminding myself that progress rarely happens overnight.
Through it all, the steady support of my beautiful and endlessly patient wife has been my foundation. I’ve come to realise that much of life’s happiness is found simply in being together—being with people you love and deeply respect. That truth has begun to define the reason I make furniture, and I’m excited to share more of that story in the year ahead.
As I look back on 2025, I see tangible progress. I see a derelict shop that had stood empty for 30 years—renovated over the course of this year while I worked full time elsewhere to help settle my family. I see tools finally mounted on the wall again, unpacked from storage, including the one machine I was able to ship back from California alongside my hand tools. I see work happening again.
I also see meaningful commissions with wonderful clients, and the beginnings of something that feels deeply aligned with who I am and where I’m headed.
So if there’s one lesson this year has reinforced, it’s this: even when it feels like you’re not where you want to be, things take time—and that’s okay. Keep pressing on. Keep pushing forward. Make adjustments where needed, but show up every day with intention. It makes all the difference.
As we close out this year, take time to rest. Time to think. Time to be thankful. Time to plan. And most importantly, time to be with the people you love.
I wish you all a very happy New Year.
I’ll see you in 2026.
