2013

New Year's Eve last year found the husband and I having a few too many drinks at a house party in Christchurch, NZ. This New Year's Eve we watched the 9pm fireworks and fell asleep well before midnight. Seriously. It's amazing how much can change in a year!

Maybe it was because I woke up without a hangover, or maybe it had to do with waking up to a clean house, but I have been feeling pretty inspired and motivated. I love how a new year can do that. Most of my goals have to do with my translation business, so I won't bore you with those... The only other two things I really want to accomplish this year are: surviving the first few months of parenthood, and paying more attention to my kitchen. I.e. getting back into menu planning, not going to the grocery store every damn day, buying produce at the farmers market, being mindful of how much we spend, cooking more foods from scratch and drinking more green smoothies. To that end, I continue to save (and save, and save) for my dream vitamix, and a friend and I have signed up for Heather's Whole Food Kitchen online workshop.

Finally, it was hard to whittle down (I especially wanted to include all of my posts from Vancouver),  but here are 6 of my favourite posts from 2012:

New Zealand: Part 1
A letter (to my dog)
Sunday is my favourite
The end of missing someone
Surprise!
My black apple doll and gender predictions

how my 4 simple goals are going

Last month, I wrote out my 4 simple goals here on the blog. Most of them are still in progress, but I thought it was about time for  an update anyway...

1. Knit a blanket. Right after I wrote the original post I went to my favourite Sydney craft shop, Calico & Ivy, and picked up a whole lot of wool. I started knitting right away, but I reckon it'll take me at least another month to finish. We'll see!

2. De-clutter and make my home pretty. Yet more proof that writing out your goals really works; the week I wrote this I went crazy de-cluttering and buying bits and pieces to spruce things up. There's still lots more I want to do, but we're getting there.

3. Buy a new camera and learn to use it. I am so, so excited about this one! This week, after much scrimping, saving, and debating, I ordered myself a new Canon. I should get it sometime next week, and then it'll be operation learn how to use it. I have a feeling my notes from The Nursery may come in handy...

4. Establish a home yoga practice. More of a fail here, not gonna lie. No matter how hard I try, if I'm home I pretty much only do yin yoga (restorative yoga). I definitely need someone else in the room to push me, but that's ok. Yin and yang I guess.

Have any of you guys gotten on Elsie's 4 simple goals bandwagon? How are you going?

4 simple goals

photo credit

Whenever I stop by the blog A Beautiful Mess, I always leave feeling inspired and keen to work harder. Elsie recently blogged a challenge to complete 4 simple goals by the end of the year, and I am in. Here are mine:

photo by Tim

1. Knit a blanket. There's a simple blanket that I have in mind, and I'm sure I'll be able to finish it by the new year. Hopefully this week I'll stop being so indecisive and go buy some wool!

2. De-clutter & make my home pretty. You've probably noticed that I'm on an uber spring cleaning kick. And yet, there still seems to be so much to sort through. The other day I realized that we had 2 identical duvet covers, what the what??? After that's done, I'm feeling extra inspired lately to pretty things up. I'm thinking fresh flowers, some strategically placed trays, and house plants.

3. Buy a new camera & learn to use it. To be honest, this is probably #1 on my list of priorities. I've been saving my pennies and I'm close to being able to afford a new digital slr. Then it will be time to put in practice everything I learned at the nursery.

4. Establish a home yoga practice. This is just a goal where I need to be more disciplined with myself. There's always something to distract me at home which is why I prefer going to yoga classes, but I'd like to have a bit of both for balance.

I like Elsie's idea to reward yourself with something at the end, a road trip with husband perhaps? Yes, that sounds just right.

my oh so late new year's resolution

{the wall, slightly reorganized from this post}

{the fridge featuring another calender and a menu planner}

The fact that I'm only now, at the very end of January, posting about my New Year's resolutions should give you some indication of how organized I am. Ahem. Just last night husband and I were talking about how much we hate being adults. I always feel like I'm 5 steps behind on all the boring bureaucratic work of being an adult.

So this year, my main goal is to be more organized and stop putting off the tasks I avoid. Hello paperwork! To that end, I have a cute calender in my room, another one on the fridge, a menu planner also on the fridge and the frankie diary. Yup, that should do it.

What are your resolutions?

Winter goals

Inspired by Elsie's summertime goals, I decided to make up my own list. Of course, I live in Australia so I made a list of wintertime goals instead. I love that she focused on fun, non-work related things because I'm also swamped with work right now. But I want to make sure that I take the time to enjoy winter, because it's a season that I love.

So, my slightly silly goals are:

1. Go to the Katoomba Winter Magic Festival. I've been meaning to do this every year that I've lived here and I haven't yet. This is the year!

2. Make gingerbread cookies. Probably these ones...

3. Decorate home for winter. I like changing little things up around my home with the seasons. I'll probably throw in some more flannel, switch up my fox garland etc.

4. Knit something for myself. I feel like it's been forever since I've knitted/crocheted anything! This is just not right and must be rectified immediately.

5. Catch up on oscar movies. This one is really silly, but I missed every single oscar nominated movie this year and I'd like to change that. Starting tonight...