New Year

I've been reading a lot of blog posts recently about goals for the new year. Some of them are inspiring, and I've actually considered changing my own goals because of it. But I'm not going to.

I decided sometime in December that I have only one personal goal for 2014, and that is simply to take better care of myself.

The best part of that goal is that it means whatever I want it to mean. I can reinvent my definition on a monthly basis if I need to. But the core concept will always be the same. Honestly, I think we all need to spend a little more time taking care of ourselves.

Now, Earl and I have talked about making couple goals for the year, but we haven't settled on anything yet. I might share those when we do.

Work-out plans

So, as a girl with an impending wedding, I’m sure that post title is not a shock to any of you.

If you’re wondering if “Lose weight” or “Get Fit” or “Work out more” was a part of my New Years resolutions, I can tell you that…. no, no they weren’t. I hate resolutions in general. I feel like they’re something people make just to say they’ve done and then ignore for 11 months only to look back, feel guilty and resolve to do it all over again.

I do not make resolutions. If you follow my author blog, you’ll see that I do make goals. And I make them monthly. The reason I don’t post my non-writing goals on the interwebs is because they’re kind of boring. Things like “figure out what to do with the problem corner” and “actually remember to call x person on their birthday” (I am rubbish at that last bit.)

But I do have some work out goals or plans and I decided I’d share them with you.
- 1 mile walk (with or without the dog – with takes a lot longer because she likes to sniff at EVERYTHING) 4 times a week.
- 40 minutes of Yoga 5 times a week
- 45 minute cardio session 1 a week

I realize these are not lofty goals, but they’re better than nothing.

Geek Girl in a New Year

A lot of stuff happened in 2013… and I expect even more will happen this year (what with getting married and all), but I’ve got a plan so I’ll be around more this year.

December got away from me (obviously). I always think I’m going to be so organized for the holiday season, and then when it gets here it’s like a mad dash to the finish. I really am going to try harder this year!

I’ll be switching to a posting schedule of MWF (with a rare exception), so hopefully that will keep me on my 2014 goal of constant posting.

Things to expect in the new year:

More geekery – I’m dedicating Mondays to “Fandom,” so I’ll be talking about the things I love.

Potentially neurotic posts – I’m sure at some point within the next three months, I’ll be on here with some sort of a rant about wedding stuff….

Copious pictures of my dog – she is, after all, the cute one in the family!

And… Me. I’m putting myself through a small challenge. One photo a week for the year… as a way to make myself care more about my own appearance – I can get to be frumpy. So, as an extra incentive to try, I’ll be posting those pictures here with my post on Wednesdays.

February's Craft: Button Monograms

Once again this particular craft was inspired by Pinterest... who woulda thought? The link to that is right here.

I changed it up a little and here's how you can do it too.

What you will need:

Canvas

Paint and paint brush

Buttons

Glue

Embroidery Floss, A needle, and scissors

Step 1: Paint your canvas and let dry fully.

I wanted the pink one's textrue to resemble cake frosting. and thankfully, I managed to get just that!

As you can see, I started this craft back in January (note the unfinished cork birdhouse). But that is because I was using oil paints and if you know oil paints, you know they take a while to dry.

For the Blue I went with a technique I've used a lot in the past, but stil love. (I painted this one the weekend ater the pink, to allow for ample setting time before I hung the pink up to finish drying.)

And there it is, drying over my abysmally disorganized desk.

2. Lay out your letter (or if you want to do a different design, that's cool too) and glue buttons in place.

It was like a strange sort of puzzle.

The first attempt at a layout for the B did not work at all. It's got button issues as well as being too far down.

The glue is important if - like me you don't plan to sew all of the buttons on.

Step 3 - Sew buttons on. (You can do a little or a lottle, or all.) I did a few here and there.

I'm not sure why this ended up being so grainy.

2012 in Review… and the Goals for 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's a new year, this is a new blog, time to move forward! Bbut it seems there are some things that need to be dealt with from the past.

I had my list of things I wanted to get done before today… and most of them did not get accomplished. But, I’m not beating myself up over that.

My blogging Schedule didn’t improve – though I feel okay blaming the end of the year craziness for that. And I’ve gotten myself in a good place for this year – I think/hope.

Reviewing went decently enough… I logged 143 reviews, including TV episodes and Movies, I had no goals for reviewing books, so I’m not counting those. I got two of the series I wanted to review done, and batting 500 isn’t something to sneer at. Though I didn’t get to Eureka, and that has me a little bummed.

I did complete my reading and writing goals, you can read more about those over here.

Things around the home got thrown off track when we realized we were moving again… but I think I’d call those three items done: I got the digital photo files organized and edited (excluding the ones still waiting to be dumped from my camera), we got the long closet under control and we didn’t need to worry about decorating the master suite, because we’re getting out of there.

– Goals for 2013 –

Make 365 recipies

(I’ll post the details of this one a little later in the month)

Complete One Craft Project each month

            (This will help with my Christmas goals for the year)

Review 4 movies and 1 season of a TV series each month

            (We’ll see how this goes… since last year’s hopes were not met)

Read 60 Books

            (I’m pretty sure I can do 5/month… if I put my mind to it. I have about 80 in my TBR pile, so this will be a great help.)

I also have plans to do a monthly goal… which I’ll tell you at the beginning of each month :D

January’s Goal: Organize my Pinterest Boards

(I’ll be honest, I’m giving myself an easy one to start with, because January is going to be hectic.)

Lucy says Happy New Year too!

Goals: Closet update!

So, it's not done yet, but it definitely looks better! This was done mostly with a few spare moments and a serious glare at reorganizing.

I guess instead of "after" I should have put during. I still have plans for ways to make it better yet. But those things take time and some creative shopping. That grey tub in front of the shelving unit is the china set Earl's Grandmother gave us... that we're searching out a hutch for. I thought I'd found one... but I'm not sure that's going to work out, which is a little sad. Oh well.

See that box above the ore and "before"? That was a box of things to take to Goodwill that I totally forgot about! This is why it's a good thing to pay attention to what's in your closet...

Here's a bigger picture of the closet... in it's re-organized glory.

Goals: Bathroom Inspiration

So I started a bathroom inspiration board... it's kinda pathetic at the moment... but I'm sure it'll get there.

Goals: The Closet Before

Two weeks ago, I posted my "Get it Done Before 2013 List" And while I haven't made much headway, I thought I'd talk about one of them today... and show you the bulk of the issue with it.

The Closet.....

Gosh it's a mess. It's storing everything from my bread machine, to Earl's circular saw and other tools, to the ladder we borrowed from his mom, to the curtain rod for the bedroom (long metalic pole up front) to the costco-size pack of paper towels... and eight shoe boxes of baseball cards!

Luckily, we have these lovely curtains to hide it all from view (thanks to our awesome friends who lived in the apartment before.)