I crossed off #45 on my Life List, y'all! On New Year's Eve. While wearing yoga pants. It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad it was just one song :) It was a great way to end to the year. And because I crossed off a Life List item, I didn't feel bad that I was in bed by 10pm (our boy, while super cute and sweet, is an early riser!). Thanks to my brother, Alan, for taking the photo below. And thanks to my awesome husband for letting me sing along with his band :)
Happy 2013 from a bar in the middle of nowhere, California. We kept this boy up way past his bedtime so that he could see his dad play guitar on a song while I sang at the mic. He couldn't hold out and went to bed about 20 before we played. Maybe next year :)
Hope your night is wonderful and your year the best one yet!
I loved making my Life List for Camp Mighty and Go Mighty- the big picture of things I wanted to do with my life, in general, anytime. 2013 is much more concrete. There's more pressure because of the time limit. But I loved doing it for 2012 and am excited about the prospect of a new year.
1. Finish the house projects & landscaping before our sweet babe #2 arrives at the end of March. I won't be doing much of the manual labor, but I'd like to help make sure that it gets done, so I'm including it as goal #1. I'll be doing the fun, pretty stuff- paint colors, flea markets, hanging paintings, etc.
2. Continue to expand my photography business. I taught my first workshop on photographing kids last month and it was awesome. And I've been asked to teach it again at Treehouse Kid & Craft in Athens, GA in February and I'm super excited. I'd love to host a few more workshops this year.
3. Keep up with my Daily Kid Pic. I did a much better job at photographing and uploading in 2012 than 2011. Was it because it was on my list of goals? I'm not sure, but I liked the results and I don't want to jinx it- especially with sweet babe #2 coming in March. We'll keep the same Flickr set for both kids. And they'll get their own "year-end" books.
4. Have photos in Anthology Magazine.
5. Take a calligraphy class.
6. Read 12 books. One a month seems like a lot, given my reading past, but what the heck, go big, right?! After I write this list, I'm off to the local bookstore to pick up a few new reads & use my Christmas gift cards!*
7. Find a charity, donate $500, and volunteer with them on a regular basis. This is actually a request from my grandmother who passed away last year. Luckily she gave me the money to donate, so that's not the issue. The hard part is choosing the charity when there are so many. I know I want a local organization that focuses on children's education (reading or nutrition). And bonus points if my 4 year old can volunteer with me. Please let me know if you have any recommendations!!
8. Write book proposal and get the ball rolling on my coffee table book idea. Carried-over from last year because this did not happen at all.
9. Be a better cook. I wish I could write "Enjoy cooking" as my goal, but that seems like an impossibility. I don't enjoy it, but I know that eating healthy as a family is super duper important. Maybe my goal needs to be more tangible- like "Try a new recipe once per week"- or something like that. I think I need to get a few new things for the kitchen- handheld blender, measuring cups, and maybe a Vitamix! When my son says, "Thanks, Chef Kate," I'd like to feel like I've earned it.
My goals & ideas for 2012 can be found here. Apparently I skipped writing down goals and ideas for 2011, but my list for 2010 can be found here. What are your plans for the year??
*Update: After writing this post I went to Mountain Bookshop and scored some books! Have you read any of these?
Did you make plans for 2012? I did, and I want to take a moment to go over them; to see what went well and what didn't. The 7 items were my goals (in italics and bold) and I'm pretty happy with how the year panned out.
1. I'm currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and it has ideas to improve happiness! Each month you focus on a different aspect of your life (Energy/Exercise, Love/Marriage, Friendships, etc.). My goal for the next couple of weeks is to finish the book and start putting the ideas into action! I notice that if I act happy (even if I'm not), everyone else seems to be happy! I highly recommend the book. Kindly check your local bookstore. Have you read the book? What did you think?
2. Continue to expand my photography business. The biz is trucking right along and keeping me busy. Aside from some super amazing weddings, the highlights of the year were attending the Feather Love Artist Workshop (my post & photos here, photographing Camp Mighty (my post here, here, and here, and teaching my first workshop!
3. Plant some edibles. I did this, and we ate some, and the raccoons ate some, and I realized that my plants needed a whole lot more water. Everything was going well until we went out of town and they didn't get water. It was downhill from there. I'll try again next year :)
4. Get back to my Daily Kid Pic. Well, it wasn't everyday, but 172 out of 366 isn't bad -that's nearly every other day :) And it's better than 2011 when I did 82 out of 365. In the 4 years I've been doing this project, we have 816 photos, something I am very proud of. And it's been a great way to challenge, stretch, and improve my photography.
5. Learn how to write a book proposal and then write it!! Yeah, this hasn't happened, at all. It's getting carried-over to 2013.
6. Finish the interior of our house! We're almost done!!! We have one room left that needs renovations (we've done the other 3 bedrooms, the kitchen, and the living room). And then the fun designing and decorating start! We're going to try and get that all done before March (see #7!!)
7. Have another baby! I'm currently 7 months pregnant :) After 4 failed pregnancies in the last 2 ½ years, it's nice to feel the baby kick around. We're due in March.
The full write up of my goals and ideas for 2012 can be found here. Apparently I skipped writing down goals and ideas for 2011, but my list for 2010 can be found here. Next up: goals for 2013!