Goals for 2016

Ok so it's that time of the year again, when I reflect on things I did or didn't do in 2015. One of the things that I like doing is evaluating what things I wanted to accomplish but for some reason did not.

One major thing that I got done was that my husband and I went on our very first proper vacation together! It was super exciting for us and 2016 is going to be just as exciting as we have already booked another vacation that is going to occur at the end of June and into the beginning of July.

My blog and YouTube channel became neglected toward the end of the year. I don't want this to happen again this year. I have bought a planner specifically to track what is going on with both of those things. I am going to eventually come up with a schedule that works for me in terms of posting. But my general goal is to post one video a week and two blog posts with pictures and details. Now one of those posts will probably be the video post. 

With that I should mention that I am probably going to be using a lot of Close to my Heart product. I don't want anyone to think that I am trying to push selling the product. I am a consultant, but that is mostly because I love the product and love to use it.  I don't want my blog or channel to turn into something that is trying to push people to buying the CTMH product. I will always link to my personal CTMH page where you can purchase if you like. I'm not even sure that I will say the names of stamp sets in posts and videos. I really don't wan to become one of those bloggers/youtubers that use it as a platform to sell product. If you are interested in something the by all means contact me and I will help you figure out what it is I am using!

On to more of my personal goals for the year. I have been struggling in trying to lose weight. So this year my husband and I have decided that we are going to start going to our gym 3 times a week, as opposed to the once a week we do now, to start with. Within a couple months, I intend on increasing the number of times that I am going, but I want to start off with something manageable at first.

Along with this is going to be our menus.  While we don't eat as badly as we once did, I think we still aren't eating the way that we should be. To combat this problem I have developed some menu plans to start us off eating well. If these go ok and are tasty I will share them here.

My goal is to lose 30-40 pounds by the end of June, I know this sounds like a lot but it's about 2 pounds a week.  Which is within a healthy weight loss range for my height and current weight. Hopefully I can make it a bit more than that and end up at about 55 pounds, but I would be happy with either.

Another thing that I want to do this year is really get back into knitting and crocheting. I can do both, but only the basics. I can knit and I can purl, but I can't do them in sequence. So my goal for that is to learn how to increase my pattern abilities. I am getting tired of making the same thing all the time. A dishcloth or a baby blanket made in the same way as a dishcloth. I want to expand my basic knit stich and branch out of the square dishcloth range. Along with that is crocheting. Now I haven't actually made anything by crochet yet. I am still working on not losing stitches and getting better at the basic stitch. Since I am so pro-dishcloth that is going to be my first crochet project.

I have also recently gotten into sewing. Just very basic projects and nothing big. I am going to be making a baby blanket for my husband boss as they just had another baby. That will be my first larger scale project. But even still it is a very simple pattern. Once I have made it and see how it goes, I will update here with my thoughts on it.

My other goal for the year is reading. I love to read! However, I find that I am not doing as much reading as I once did. I used to read all the time, then I started University and it changed to reading for class and not pleasure. When I graduated I lost interest in reading. Well I want to start again. I am going to aim for reading 50 books this year. That is just under one book a week. I think that I can do this if I really make time to read.

Those are my goals! I am hoping that by writing it down and making them public that I will be more inclined to keeping them. I will be making a video for my channel with the same goals in it as well.

See you later!