Year In Review 2025
I haven’t written one of these in a while. I’m not much of a reflection person, but enough happened this year that it felt worth capturing.
Work
Statamic
Work has been busy. We originally planned to ship Statamic 6 around April/May, but we decided to take on a full redesign, and things naturally snowballed.
As part of that work, we migrated to Interia.js (🎉) and built our own UI component library. That alone was a sizeable undertaking. Note to self: never build your own combobox.
Considering there are only five of us, I think we’ve done a solid job. I’m still really happy at Statamic, and I can’t see myself going anywhere anytime soon.
You'll likely hear a lot more from us in the new year!
Cargo
Cargo is an e‑commerce add‑on for Statamic that I’ve been building in my spare time. I started it last year as a replacement for an existing add‑on of mine. It isn’t fully released yet (it depends on Statamic 6), but I announced the alpha back in August.
Beyond the product itself, I spent a lot of time on documentation. I don’t love any of docs generators, and I couldn’t land on something I was happy with, so I brought in a designer friend, Mike Martin, to help with the docs and branding. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Early traction was slow, but things have started to pick up. There’s activity in GitHub Discussions, DMs, and email. Someone even answered another user’s question without me getting involved 🤯
At some point next year, I'd love to be in a position where I can pay someone to help with bug fixes and support. I love my job at Statamic and want to free up some time for other side projects.
Meetups & Conferences
I made it to a few meetups and conferences this year:
- GlasgowPHP
- Laracon EU
- Laracon US
- Statamic Meetup in Alkmaar
Whether it’s because I work from home or just enjoy travelling, I really like in‑person events—even as an introvert 🙈.
After attending GlasgowPHP this year, I joined the team helping to organise it. I’ve also built the websites for the Glasgow meetup and the Edinburgh one (coming soon).
I also had the chance to speak at the Statamic Meetup in Alkmaar 🇳🇱. It was my first talk. There are definitely things I’d do differently next time, but overall it went well. I spoke about building e‑commerce sites with Cargo.
I’m hoping to attend more in‑person events next year. Fingers crossed for Flat Camp 2026 🤞
Personal
On the personal side, I passed my driving test in January and bought a car not long after. It’s been really nice being able to do things without having to organise lifts or rely on public transport.
I also took my first solo, non‑work trip and visited Köln. I’ve already got two more trips planned for next year. One of the perks of living at home with minimal commitments.
More recently, I’ve been trying to limit my time on social media. I bought a Brick a few months back, which has been incredibly effective at stopping me from doom‑scrolling Twitter and Instagram first thing in the morning. These days I only check Twitter on my laptop, and Instagram every few days when I intentionally “unbrick” my phone.
Looking ahead
2025 was a busy year, in a good way.
Next year, I hope to release Cargo and get it to a mature state so I can spend less time on it and more on other side projects. I also want to be more deliberate with my time - less external noise and more focus on creating.