New Year's Resolutions 2014 - The State of Me
Back in January, I made some serious resolutions for the year. While a lot of people make New Year's resolutions and forget them a few months later (me included many years), this is one of the years that I wanted to be different, so I've done everything I can to focus on making progress on my goals for the year. Here's my progress report from the halfway mark...
Lose 50 lbs
I've lost 14 lbs so far, most of that in the last six weeks. I started tracking my calories on June 1, and that was pretty much the last piece in the puzzle. I've been exercising by walking or biking for 40 minutes a day, almost daily, since January 1, and upped the amount of fruits and vegetables in my diet, while cutting back on processed sugars/carbs, without losing any weight - or rather, losing the same 4 lbs over and over again. Once I started actually counting the calories, I was able to create a daily deficit. My former "skinny" jeans are now my super-comfy jeans. I'm pretty happy. Six months to go, I got this.
Bike to Corvallis and back overnight
Hasn't happened yet, but my longest ride has been just over 20 miles, and I recently did one ride of 17.5 miles and still had tons of energy afterward. It's going to happen.
$2000 in savings
Not there or anywhere close, but I do have more in savings now than I did on Jan 1.
Pay off one credit card
Long way to go but I'm making steady progress. I'm working on bringing in extra income and selling off some of my more expensive research books because I need the space and the funds. It's one of things that I really hate to do, but it needs to happen.
List 600 things on eBay
Not counting relistings, I've listed 118.
Make $2500 from art sales
Long way to go there. I've made a few small sales and reveled in every single one of them.
Six shows/sales (Radcon, Norwescon, Orycon, Many Hands, two more)
I missed Radcon and Norwescon, but they are absolutely on my list for next year. I made up for that by getting into the New Zone Gallery's Zone 4 All show, and I was the featured artist at the Hilyard St Beanery in May.
Get to and maintain 100 Etsy art listings
Currently at 27, 31 if you count felties. For purposes of my resolution, I was thinking more in terms of 2-D pieces.
48 blog posts for the year
Talking about my art blog here. I'm at 16.
Make one crafty thing a week: knitting, needle-felting, stitching, etc.
Way behind on this one. I've made some good things, though. Done some knitting, stitched some furoshikis, did some mending, crocheted. I put together a very cool earring holder from a piece of vintage yardstick which I'm really happy with.
Have a cleaner, more organized home
Working on it. Piece by piece.
Discard 3500 things
I've discarded 430.
Pick up five things per room per day
I did this through March before it kind of fell apart. I need to pick it up again because it really works. We desperately need better organizational tools around here.
Do Spring and Fall cleaning
The house didn't get pristine during the spring cleaning, but it did get a lot better. I tackled some big projects. Sigh. Domestic management is hard.
Write morning pages
Haven't. Should. It's a really excellent tool.
Be festive at Christmas
I've got some really excellent blogs and articles bookmarked
Lose 50 lbs
I've lost 14 lbs so far, most of that in the last six weeks. I started tracking my calories on June 1, and that was pretty much the last piece in the puzzle. I've been exercising by walking or biking for 40 minutes a day, almost daily, since January 1, and upped the amount of fruits and vegetables in my diet, while cutting back on processed sugars/carbs, without losing any weight - or rather, losing the same 4 lbs over and over again. Once I started actually counting the calories, I was able to create a daily deficit. My former "skinny" jeans are now my super-comfy jeans. I'm pretty happy. Six months to go, I got this.
Bike to Corvallis and back overnight
Hasn't happened yet, but my longest ride has been just over 20 miles, and I recently did one ride of 17.5 miles and still had tons of energy afterward. It's going to happen.
$2000 in savings
Not there or anywhere close, but I do have more in savings now than I did on Jan 1.
Pay off one credit card
Long way to go but I'm making steady progress. I'm working on bringing in extra income and selling off some of my more expensive research books because I need the space and the funds. It's one of things that I really hate to do, but it needs to happen.
List 600 things on eBay
Not counting relistings, I've listed 118.
Make $2500 from art sales
Long way to go there. I've made a few small sales and reveled in every single one of them.
Six shows/sales (Radcon, Norwescon, Orycon, Many Hands, two more)
I missed Radcon and Norwescon, but they are absolutely on my list for next year. I made up for that by getting into the New Zone Gallery's Zone 4 All show, and I was the featured artist at the Hilyard St Beanery in May.
Get to and maintain 100 Etsy art listings
Currently at 27, 31 if you count felties. For purposes of my resolution, I was thinking more in terms of 2-D pieces.
48 blog posts for the year
Talking about my art blog here. I'm at 16.
Make one crafty thing a week: knitting, needle-felting, stitching, etc.
Way behind on this one. I've made some good things, though. Done some knitting, stitched some furoshikis, did some mending, crocheted. I put together a very cool earring holder from a piece of vintage yardstick which I'm really happy with.
Have a cleaner, more organized home
Working on it. Piece by piece.
Discard 3500 things
I've discarded 430.
Pick up five things per room per day
I did this through March before it kind of fell apart. I need to pick it up again because it really works. We desperately need better organizational tools around here.
Do Spring and Fall cleaning
The house didn't get pristine during the spring cleaning, but it did get a lot better. I tackled some big projects. Sigh. Domestic management is hard.
Write morning pages
Haven't. Should. It's a really excellent tool.
Be festive at Christmas
I've got some really excellent blogs and articles bookmarked