Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I'm really looking forward to what 2013 has in store and I have a whole new list of goals I want to accomplish. A new year is always so incredibly inspiring, yet it is often hard for me to stick to what I want to get done. I know I'm not alone in this.

Looking back on my goals for 2012, I was able to accomplish most of them. At one point in time I had over 200 items in my shop which was a big one on the list. I'm back down to 190 and would consider that a pretty awesome success. I well surpassed my sales goal of 400 (thank you, thank you, thank you guys!!!!). I didn't design a website, but I started working on a Storenvy shop which is definitely in its infant stages. The studio is still a work in progress, but is mostly set up. I did pretty well with posting more than three time a week on this blog and it has grown much more than I had expected (again, thank you guys!!!). And last but not least I came up with a new packaging concept for my cards and stationery that I love and my customers love.

So what are my goals for 2013? (This is going to be a long one. Just warning you? And no fancy schmancy photos, sorry.)

1. Stop apologizing for not blogging when I just simply haven't had the time. See how I didn't apologize at the beginning of this post for being MIA over the holidays? I have a life sometimes people! We all do!

2. Stop being embarrassed about my Etsy shop and blog. You may not know that I'm embarrassed by it on this blog, but in real life I struggle. Andrew is always trying to promote me and it embarrasses me. Sometimes I think my friends think I'm crazy and that they think what I'm trying to accomplish are just pipe dreams. The reality is that once my student loans are paid off, I will probably quit teaching and do what I do creatively as a full time endeavor. Most of my friends give me that look like, "that's really cool, but I think you're completely nuts and not being realistic." The truth is that I hate working for institutions and don't want to feel stifled like I do now. I am resourceful with money and could easily live on a very small salary-- my parents, both self-employed, taught me well in that regard. They also taught me to do what I do because I love what I do. I'm not sure I love teaching anymore. Bottom line, if I continue to feel embarrassed I'm holding myself back. Ok.... super long, but I'm done now. :)

3. Be healthier. I'm talking about exercise and stress. I eat very healthily and always have. I lack a regular exercise schedule and tend to exercise in spurts. I want to be more consistent. I also need to make it a priority to find ways to deal with stress. Lately stress has been a major problem and has wreaked havoc on my health. That will end. It has to.

4. Double my sales for my shop again this year. If I did it in 2012, I can do it again, right? ;)

5. Design at least 20 new stationery sets. I've been focusing a lot on greeting cards lately because they are so fun to come up with! However, I've missed designing stationery and find that kind of a design to be a completely different challenge.

6. Enjoy Baltimore again. Several years ago, the architecture firm Andrew works for wasn't doing so well due to the recession. Pretty much every architecture firm out there suffered during the recession. Recession meant pay cuts so we stopped doing a lot of things that we did regularly that required money. We used to go to the coffee shop every Saturday morning or go on day trips around the area or in the city. We stopped doing those things because we didn't have the money. The pay cuts were reversed a few years ago, yet we never got back into these routines and we've missed them.

7. Read more. Maybe a book a month? I've already started doing this in the last few months, but I want the trend to continue.

8. Be in my first craft show. This was a goal last year that never happened. Part of it is because of lack of time. Another part of it is fear. I'm kind of scared to take that leap, but it is a leap I need to take in order to take my business to a new level.

9. Travel more. This might mean less impulse buys (think clothes and shoes, especially shoes) and more saving. I'm good at saving money already, but I probably could save even more if I backed off on the shoe addiction. After spending time in Colorado over Christmas, I realized that we could be doing a lot more of that. I seemed quite fine with paying a ridiculous amount of money for the new booties that I desperately wanted when that could have been half of a round trip plane ticket to somewhere awesome.

10. Take more photos. I've been slacking off with this because I've focused so much on my greeting cards and stationery. I miss photography. I need to get back in the routine of taking my camera with me everywhere and not being afraid to use it! Anyone up for a photo challenge? I'm thinking that may be just the kick in the butt that I need!

These are my main goals for this new year. If you've made it this far, I'm pretty impressed. I hope the rest of my blog posts in 2013 are a fair more entertaining!

What goals or resolutions do you have for 2013?