Hopes & Plans For 2016 - A Review.
How are we already talking about end of the year round ups and resolutions and 2017? How did we even get this far? As absolutely appalling as this year has been I feel like the end of it has crept up on us ever so fast.
Last year at the beginning of December I wrote this post on my hopes and plans for 2016 (which I said sounded like a weird fake year so at least I got that right) and I forgot all about it until a few days ago.
So what does any self respecting blogger do? She milks it and makes more content out of it obvs.
1. Actually go to Venice because I am dying to go back and take my Mum and show her around and have a wonderful girlie long weekend in the most beautiful city.
Well that didn't happen. I was reasonably confident we'd get this one ticked off in 2016 and it just didn't happen. Me and my Mum and our friends have been saying since about January 2015 we want to go and yet again this year we couldn't make the time and we ended up going to Bath instead which whilst lovely, not exactly Venice is it?
2. Expand my business and get a load more fun and exciting new work.
Yayyyy I actually succeeded in something in 2016. The lines between what I did in 2015 and what I did in 2016 is a bit blurry but this year has been a fun one for work projects. I hit my Etsy sales target, I did a bunch of portraits and one offs and I secured my pitch with Chester Racecourse which was easily the most fun project of the year.
3. Get published/signed to an agency.
I wish.
4. Learn to speak more Welsh. It's so demeaning to have to say I can't speak more than some insults with a name like mine.
This one made it from the hopes and plans list to the grand old NYE list and it still didn't happen. It'll probably make it on to the 2017 NYE resolutions list too and hopefully I'll have more success next year.
5. Drive anywhere and everywhere with utter confidence without getting lost all the time sans SatNav.
Smashed it. I haven't taken a SatNav out since I passed my test last November, in fact I don't even own one. I've had a few hairy moments when I got a bit nervy driving somewhere new but it hasn't stopped me doing an 8 hour round trip to spend 24 hours in Wrexham twice this year so it can't be all bad.
6. Do my finances on the first day of every month not 740237498237 days later and play catch up and think "WHAT WAS £17.56 ON THE 8TH FOR???"
This also made it onto my resolutions list and lol it worked for about 3 months or something. I am rethinking this one and developing it/editing it for 2017 so watch this space for that one.
7. See more of the friends I don't see enough and then think YES these are my people. They are too important. And friggin hilarious.
I decided in 2016 that those types of friendships, those ones you get together after 6 months like you've never been apart, those people that form your gang are the friendships worth investing in. I will always save money to pay for petrol to get to Wrexham to see my uni friends. I spend evenings with takeaways and my Foundation friends howling with laughter because they just get me. Obviously I would've liked to have done this even more this year but being 013909477836 hours apart and spread out over the countryside, I'll take all the time I had with these beauties.
8. Buy the whole Adobe suite for my new iMac not just struggle along with only Photoshop.
I don't even know why this was an aspiration. I have the whole Adobe suite on my MacBook and I intended to buy it for my iMac appaz but I never gave this one another second of consideration because I just don't need it? Photoshop is fine for that computer, sure InDesign might be useful but fork out for the whole lot? No siree.
9. Blog even more regularly than I do. I'm talking 4 posts a week not 2.
Oh hey remember when I said I wanted to post 4 days a week and then I started posting at least 6 and then blogged everyday for a few months? Nailed it.
10. Build up my new home with lots of lovely things and things that inspire me.
This is a bit of a hit and miss one? Yes I did buy lots of things for my new home but now I am planning a big re jig and renovation project for the New Year and now I need lots more lovely things that inspire me...poor me.
11. Watch my niece continue to grow into the most stubborn, wilful, cheeky, happy little child she is turning out to be.
She was 6 months old when I wrote that post, now she's 18 months -insert crying why the fuck is she growing so fast emoji here- I was with her on Monday and she told a plant pot on her highchair to 'go away' I think that says everything it needs to.
12. Learn to cook better.
I don't think I learnt to cook better per se, I didn't really learn to cook much else but what I can cook I think is delicious so there's that. In the new kitchen me and Joss have said we're going to each choose a recipe from our cookbooks and try cooking something new every week. Also I think I'm getting a slow cooker for Christmas which would be wonderful. I did make Christmas tree biscuits a fortnight ago though which you can have a nosey at here!
13. Enjoy more experiences. Live rugby, gigs, go to the cinema more often, go for food out, live a bit more.
Wah wah wah I really wanted to do more of this stuff in 2016 but money is a bitch isn't it? I did lots of things, lots of fun things, lots of things with friends but rugby and gigs and cinema didn't really come into it all that much. I did however re learn my love of the outdoors, of walking and clearing my head and how much BETTER in myself being outdoors makes me feel and that I think can only be a good thing.
14. Find a pair of over the knee black boots that don't make me look like a stripper.
YASSS GURL. In the January of last year I went to Wrexham shopping with Tania and we both spied the same pair of over the knee boots but uhm I got my hands on them first and I don't think she's ever forgiven me. Whether or not they make me look like a stripper is yours to decide.
15. Spend more time with my twinnie, my brother who I never get to hang out with anymore. Booooo both moving out at the same time.
I still don't feel like we do this enough but that's to be expected when we went from living together and doing everything together, including starting university to moving out at the same time and him being in a full time job that doesn't co ordinate with my hours. I still feel super close to him but more probably because I see his fiancé and daughter more than him, I see them at least twice a week so I still feel connected to him even if I don't see him for weeks. What I have enjoyed though is spending time hanging out with him and his fiancé with Joss, like when we went and did our Escape Rooms ie the best evening ever.
16. ***********EARN LOTS OF MONEY**************
Oh if only.
Let's hope 2017 is even brighter and shinier and a bit less made than the last year!