Counting Sheep, Under a Golden Sky
Next year is the Year of the Sheep. Before it arrives, I wanted to change the wallpaper on my phone.
I've had trouble sleeping lately, so I started thinking about counting sheep. That became a picture: a long line of sheep walking slowly along a winding path through golden dunes at sunset. It's my way of imagining the year ahead. Calm, a little sparkly, and quietly hopeful.
If you look closely, you'll see the sheep are white, beige, and black. Two black ones are walking in the line, too. Sometimes I feel like the black sheep myself. I'm not always walking with the crowd. But they keep to the same path, one steady step after another. That's how I'd like to spend next year: working quietly, and not giving up hope.
This year, I made a Year of the Horse wallpaper for myself, a black horse crossing the desert with the words "YOU DESERVE EVERYTHING." I used it every day, and it became a small reminder each time I picked up my phone. 2026 is also the year Alter Standard began, so I'm grateful to that horse and have released it as a digital wallpaper as well.
Golden Desert – Counting Sheep is a quiet Japandi-inspired wallpaper in muted sand tones, for phone, tablet, and desktop. It's an instant digital download. The Year of the Horse version is available too.
Both live in our wallpaper collection, Atelier Yume. Yume is Japanese for "dream," both the kind we have at night and the kind we hope for.
Follow along on Instagram: @alterstandard
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